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Fifty  Years  of 
Pacific  University 


SX-O 


1848-1898 


Digitized  by  the  Internet  Archive 

in  2007  with  funding  from 

Microsoft  Corporation 


http://www.archive.org/details/exercisesofsemicOOpacirich 


EXERCISES  OF  THE 


Semi-Centennial  Anniversary 


..OP.. 


TUALATIN  ACADEMY  and  PACIFIC  UNIVERSITY 


HELD  AT  FOREST  GROVE,  OREGON 


July  9,   1898 


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CONTENTS. 

Introductory .5. 3 

Dr.  McClelland,  Address  of  Welcome 6 

William  N.  Ferrin,  Address 8 

H.  W.  Corbett,  Address 22 

H.  W.  Scott,  Address '2J 

Dr.  Mackennell,  Address  32 

Samuel  B.  Capen,  Address 36 

Dr.  Barton,  Address 47 

Dr.  Byington,  Address  53 

Dr.  McLean,  Address .55 

Dr.  Bradford,  Address 59 

Dr.  Ward,  Address 61 

President  Penrose,  Address 62 

Dr.  Strong,  Address* 63 

Dr.  Savage,  Address 6t> 

Dr.  Hallock,  Address 72 

President  Gates,  Address  78 

Trustees  and  Officers  of  University 86 


340913 


INTRODUCTORY. 

The  following  extract  from  the  ve^y  full  report  of  the 
"Golden  Jubilee"  of  Tualatin  Academy  and  Pacific  Uni- 
versity, which  appeared  in  the  Portland  Oregonian  of 
July  lo,  1898,  is  a  fitting  introduction  to  the  account 
given  in  these  pages  of  the  exercises  of  that  mem- 
orable occasion: 

FOREST  GROVE,  July  9. — The  semi-centennial 
of  Tualatin  Academy  and  Pacific  University  was  fitly 
celebrated  at  Forest  Grove  today.  Five  hundred  men 
and  women,  including  practically  all  the  delegates  to 
the  Congregational  National  Council,  and  a  goodly 
number  of  Portland  citizens,  boarded  a  special  Southern 
Pacific  train  of  eight  cars  at  1:30  P.  M.  and  sped  to 
Forest  Grove  to  participate  in  the  felicitations  of  this 
pioneer  college. 

As  the  train  pulled  out  of  Portland  the  landscape  that 
unrolled  to  the  eastward  was  a  revelation  to  the  East- 
erners, who  largely  composed  the  excursionists.  As 
elevation  was  gained  and  the  deep  canyons  were  crossed 
in  the  southern  part  of  town,  the  peaks  of  the  Cas- 
cade range  seemed  to  take  added  height.  Hood's  head 
was  pillowed  on  a  bank  of  cumulus  clouds,  that  hugged 
the  horizon  reaching  to  the  southward.  Another  cloud 
floated  so  as  to  cast  a  visible  shadow  across  the  snowy 
fields  of  St.  Helens.  Both  mountains  stood  out  boldly, 
though  there  was  enough  haze  in  the  air  to  give  what 
artists  call  atmosphere  to  the  picture.  The  rugged 
line  of  mountains  was  in  full  view,  and  the  dark  green 
of  the  timbered  slopes  was  broken  in  the  middle  ground 
by  cultivated  fields.     And  in  the  foreground  lay  the 


brimming  Willamette,  laving  the  feet  of  the  vine  maples 
and  pussy  willows.  Wild  flowers  lined  either  side  of 
the  railroad  track,  and  nodded  gracefully  to  the  passing 
visitors.  Green  woods  and  a  turn  of  the  road  changed 
the  view,  and  over  the  Scappoose  hills  came  peaceful 
scenes  of  farms.  Haying  operations,  yellowing  grain, 
blossoming  potatoes  and  ripening  fruits  marched  back 
along  the  track  as  the  train  rushed  on.  At  Beaverton 
a  short  delay  was  caused  by  a  section  crew  having 
several  rails  up  for  repairs,  but  the  train  passed  on  a 
side  track  and  arrived  at  Forest  Grove  shortly  after 
3  o'clock. 

A  score  of  conveyances  were  waiting  at  the  station, 
and  the  women  were  taken  in  them  to  the  college. 
Most  of  the  men  took  the  pleasant  walk  of  little  more 
than  a  mile.  The  road  had  been  sprinkled,  and  in  every 
way  possible  the  people  of  the  town  had  contrived 
to  give  the  visitors  a  cheerful  and  pleasing  welcome. 
A  brief  rest  in  the  shade  of  the  oaks  and  firs  on  the 
spacious  campus  preceded  the  gathering  in  the  chapel 
of  Marsh  Hall,  where  the  day's  exercises  took  place. 

The  generosity  and  kindliness  of  the  people  was 
markedly  shown  in  the  bountiful  collation  that  was 
served  under  the  oaks  back  of  Memorial  Hall.  Long 
tables  were  stretched  out  in  the  shade,  and  a  dinner, 
seasoned  for  any  palate,  was  served  to  all  who  came. 
Of  the  I, GOG  people  who  attended  the  celebration, 
none  went  hungry. 

At  the  close  of  the  dinner  hour,  about  7  o'clock,  a 
New  England  arbutus,  brought  from  Plymouth  Rock 
on  the  Council  train  from  Boston,  was  planted  by  Miss 
Whitcomb,  of  Worcester,  Mass.,  at  the  foot  of  the  "old 
bee  tree,"  a  rugged  oak  a  dozen  rods  south  of  Marsh 
Memorial  Hall,  the  tree  having  been  preserved  for  years 


because  of  the  special  request  of  Mrs.  Tabitha  Brown, 
an  early  benefactor  of  the  college. 

A  score  of  addresses  were  made  during  the  after- 
noon and  evening,  most  of  thei-^  extemporaneous, 
though  a  few  were  prepared  with  much  care.  All  were 
listened  to  with  close  attention.  A  college  song,  com- 
posed by  a  student  of  the  institution,  and  other  songs 
by  a  college  choir,  varied  the  programme  agreeably. 

An  incident  of  the  day  was  the  public  exhibition  by 
President  McClelland  of  a  check  for  $35,000,  com- 
pleting the  D.  K.  Pearsons  endowment  fund  of  $150,- 
000,  the  check  being  duly  stamped  with  a  2-cent  contri- 
bution to  support  the  war  against  Spain.  Very  unex- 
pectedly also  came  a  contribution  of  $200  from  Man- 
ager Houghton,  of  the  Council  train  from  Boston, 
who  said  it  was  the  profit  of  the  train. 

Though  the  celebration  came  during  the  vacation, 
one  would  hardly  have  noticed  it,  there  were  so  many 
bright-faced  young  people  about  helping  in  just  the 
right  places,  and  apparently  under  the  direction  of 
teachers.  President  McClelland  came  out  from  Port- 
land with  the  excursion,  and  was  indefatigable  and  al- 
most omnipresent  in  his  endeavors  to  make  the  jubilee 
the  success  it  was. 

On  the  chapel  platform  to  the  right  of  the  speakers 
was  a  large  picture  of  Dr.  Marsh,  for  25  years  presi- 
dent of  the  school;  to  their  left,  the  picture  of  Dr. 
Atkinson,  who  was  largely  instrumental  in  the  found- 
ing of  the  college;  to  the  left  of  the  platform  hung 
the  picture  of  ''Grandma"  Tabitha  Brown,  who  erected 
the  first  building  in  which  the  school  was  begun. 


ADDRESSES  AND  OTHER  EXERCISES. 

The  exercises  began  at  4  P.  M.,  soon  after  the 
arrival  of  the  train  bearing  the  members  of  the  Na- 
tional Council  and  friends  from  Portland.  They  were 
opened  with  singing  by  the  college  choir,  after  which 
the  Rev.  Lewellyn  Pratt,  D.  D.,  of  Norwich,  Conn., 
led  in  prayer. 

President  McCLELLAND  then  welcomed  the 
guests  as  follows: 

Fathers,  Brethren,  and  Friends  of  this  Institution: 
We  feel  deeply  grateful  for  your  presence  here  today. 
There  are  many  things  in  our  hearts  which  we  would 
like  to  say,  and  some  things  which  we  had  planned  to 
say,  but  the  time  is  all  too  short  for  the  carrying  out 
of  the  regular  programme,  and  so  I  shall  confine  my- 
self to  this  simple  word  of  greeting.  When  a  year 
ago,  or  somewhat  less  than  that,  I  went  before  the 
Provisional  Committee  of  the  National  Council,  in  Bos- 
ton, with  the  request  that  they  set  apart  in  the  crowded 
sessions  of  this  Council  an  afternoon  and  an  evening 
to  visit  this  institution,  I  hardly  hoped  that  my  request 
would  be  granted;  but  to  my  great  gratification  the 
committee  very  readily  consented  to  make  it  part  of 
the  programme  that  you  should  come  out  here  this 
afternoon  to  participate  with  us  in  the  celebration  of 
what  is  in  reality  not  only  the  fiftieth  anniversary  of  the 
founding  of  this  school,  but  also  the  fiftieth  anniversary 
of  the  laying  of  the  foundations  of  Congregationalism 
on  the  Pacific  Coast.  And  so  I  say,  we  are  deeply 
grateful  because  you  are  here  to  review  with  us  the 
work  of  the  half  century  past;  to  unite  your  thanks- 


givings  with  ours  for  what  God  has  wrought,  and  to 
rejoice  with  us  on  this  auspicious  day  which  looks  for- 
ward into  a  future  full  of  bright  promise.  I  only  wish 
there  were  time  that  I  might  express  more  fully  and 
more  acceptably  to  you  and  myself  the  thoughts  that 
this  interesting  occasion  calls  up;  but  these  will,  I  am 
sure,  find  fitting  expression  in  the  addresses  which  are 
to  follow. 

I  shall  begin  without  further  ceremony  the  pro- 
gramme as  arranged. 

Professor  William  N.  Ferrin  came  here  something 
over  twenty  years  ago,  as  a  young  man  just  out  of 
Vermont  University,  to  take  the  position  of  teacher 
of  mathematics  in  this  institution.  He  has  performed 
his  duties  from  that  day  to  this  most  acceptably.  Stu- 
dents who  have  gone  out  from  here  who  have  passed 
under  his  instruction  love  and  revere  the  man.  I  can 
think  of  no  one  better  quahfied  to  present  to  you  a 
brief  sketch  of  the  history  of  this  institution.  Pro- 
fessor Ferrin  will  now  read  a  paper,  setting  forth  the 
essential  facts  in  the  fifty  years  that  have  gone  by  since 
the  foundations  were  laid  here. 


FIFTY     YEARS     OF     THE     COLLEGE. 
By  Professor  William  N.  Ferrin. 


Pacific  University,  like  a  very  large  proportion  of  the 
colleges  of  our  land,  had  its  origin  in  distinctively  pio- 
neer conditions.  The  spirit  and  purpose  which  act- 
uated the  Puritans  in  founding  Harvard  and  Yale,  and 
their  descendants,  who  established  Dartmouth  and 
WilHams,  in  New  England,  continued  to  possess  their 
descendants  as  they  migrated  across  the  continent  from 
the  Atlantic  to  the  Pacific.  The  fostering  of  educa- 
tion and  the  establishing  of  educational  institutions 
was  one  of  their  characteristic  tenets.  With  a  far- 
sightedness like  that  of  the  old  prophets  of  Judea,  they 
foresaw  that  the  only  safety  of  a  stable  republic  among 
a  free  people  was  the  education  of  the  people. 

Was  it  a  gift  direct  from  God,  this  prescience  of  the 
conditions  necessary  to  the  permanence  of  a  free  and 
happy  and  prosperous  people — what  we  now  call  a 
common  school  education  for  everybody,  a  higher  edu- 
cation for  the  leaders? 

These  men  gave  to  our  country  its  free  public  school 
system,  and  they  and  their  descendants  have  planted 
Christian  colleges  all  over  the  land.  As  the  population 
spread  out  from  Massachusetts  westward  its  progress 
was  marked,  particularly  along  the  Northern  belt  of 
our  country,  by  the^  founding  of  colleges  at  different 
points  along  the  advancing  frontier  like  the  altars  which 
the  patriarchs  set  up  in  Canaan  to  mark  their  progress 
through  the  promised  land,  and  to  be  perpetual  memo- 
rials to  them  and  their  children  of  the  goodness  of  God. 


Long  may  it  be  said  of  these  colleges  as  of  those  ancient 
memorials,  'They  are  there  unto  this  day." 

A  noble  list  of  colleges  they  are,  founded  in  prayer 
and  sacrifice  by  Christian  men  and  vvp.men,  who  had  an 
heroic  faith  in  the  future  greatness  of  the  country 
which,  as  pioneers,  they  were  laboring  to  build  up. 

Such  an  institution,  founded  in  such  a  spirit,  by  such 
men  and  women,  is  Pacific  University.  It  were  useless, 
in  the  short  time  allotted  me  this  afternoon,  to  attempt 
anything  approaching  a  complete  historical  sketch  of 
the  college.  I  must  content  myself  with  bringing  be- 
fore you  briefly  some  of  the  salient  features  connected 
with  the  early  days  of  the  institution.  The  history  of 
human  institutions  is  largely  the  history  of  individuals. 
Today  we  celebrate  the  fiftieth  anniversary  of  the  found- 
ing of  a  college,  but  we  gather  here  to  honor  not  the 
institution  but  the  founders  of  it. 

As  we  look  back  to  the  early  days  of  Pacific  Univer- 
sity, among  those  who  were  instrumental  in  promoting 
its  work  four  figures  stand  out  conspicuous  for  the  part 
which  they  had  in  establishing  it  and  molding  its  char- 
acter. The  first  of  these  is  that  of  a  woman,  Mrs.  Tab- 
itha  Mofifett  Brown,  who,  a  widow  and  nearly  three 
score  and  ten,  came  to  Oregon  with  the  family  of  her 
son.  With  no  family  cares  pressing  upon  her,  but  with 
the  love  of  God  and  humanity  in  her  heart,  she  cast 
about  her  for  some  work  she  could  do.  She  became 
''Grandma  Brown"  to  all  the  Willamette  valley.  She 
was  nurse  to  all  the  neighbors  far  and  wide,  and  there 
were  few  neighbors  who  were  near  in  those  days.  Like 
that  ancient  Tabitha  of  St.  Paul's  time,  she  was  "full 
of  good  works  and  alms  deeds  which  she  did."  At  last 
she  found  the  work  for  which  she  is  best  known  in  these 


10 


parts,  and  fifty-one  years  ago  this  summer  she  decided 
to  open  a  school  and  home  for  orphaned  children  of 
pioneers.  Some  fifteen  or  twenty  such  children,  rang- 
ing in  age  from  2  years  to  15,  she  gathered  into  an 
orphanage  in  the  log  church  which  stood  on  the  site 
now  marked  by  the  petrified  stump  in  our  campus. 
Donations  of  furniture,  bedding  and  provisions  were 
made  by  neighbors,  and  the  older  children  of  the  school 
assisted  as  they  were  able  in  doing  the  housework  and 
caring  for  the  younger  children.  Early  in  the  next 
year,  1848,  the  number  of  homeless  waifs  depending 
upon  Mrs.  Brown  was  much  increased  through  the 
exodus  of  men  to  the  newly-discovered  gold  mines  in 
CaHfornia,  and  larger  quarters  were  secured  by  the 
erection  of  a  log  house  of  somewhat  pretentious  propor- 
tions by  people  who  had  become  interested  in  the  work 
of  the  orphanage.  This  house  stood  where  is  now  the 
residence  of  Dr.  D.  W.  Ward. 

When  Tualatin  Academy  was  organized  this  orphan 
school  was  absorbed  in  it,  and  so  became  the  nucleus 
out  of  which  the  academy  and  college  grew. 

Mrs.  Brown  was  of  New  England  birth,  the  daughter 
of  Dr.  Joseph  MofTett,  of  Brimfield,  Mass.,  of  old  Puri- 
tan stock,  and  became  the  wife  of  Rev.  Clark  Brown, 
a  Congregational  clergyman  of  talent  and  good  stand- 
ing in  Massachusetts. 

Associated  with  Mrs.  Brown  in  the  work  of  the  or- 
phanage, and  actively  co-operating  with  her  in  all  her 
plans,  was  Rev.  Harvey  Clark,  the  second  of  our  group 
of  four  pioneer  founders.  He  was  born  in  Chester,  Vt., 
and  came  to  Oregon  in  1841  as  an  independent  mis- 
sionary to  the  Indians.  He  settled  upon  his  land  claim 
on  which  the  present  town  of  Forest  Grove  is  located, 
and  built  a  log  house,   whose  last-remaining  timbers 


11 

were  torn  away  only  a  few  years  ago  to  make  room  for 
more  modern  buildings. 

While  the  orphange,  as  a  temporary  refuge  for  home- 
less children,  was  Mrs.  Brown's  especial  work,  Mr. 
Clark,  who,  with  his  wife,  previously,  had  conducted 
a  school  for  several  terms  in  his  own  house,  seems  to 
have  cherished  for  some  years  before  its  accomplish- 
ment the  plan  of  establishing  at  this  place  a  permanent 
school.  He  waited  for  the  opportunity  of  carrying  it 
out.  Subsequently  he  made  possible  the  realization 
of  his  hopes  by  donating  200  acres  of  his  land  as  a  foun- 
dation fund,  and  later  still  another  large  tract  to  assist 
in  payment  of  teachers  who  were  engaged  in  the  work. 
This  land  was  laid  out  in  lots,  and  the  proceeds  from 
their  sale  helped  to  maintain  the  academy  and  college 
in  their  earlier  years.  Mr.  Clark's  gift  involved  the 
formation  of  no  syndicate.  It  was  a  gift  outright,  and 
without  any  conditions  whatever.  From  it  he  derived 
not  one  dollar  of  pecuniary  advantage.  No  town  lots 
were  reserved,  the  proceeds  of  whose  sale  should  go 
into  his  own  pocket.  He  is  spoken  of  by  the  men  who 
knew  him  as  peculiarly  unselfish.  "The  most  unselfish 
man  I  ever  knew,"  said  William  Painter,  the  Walla 
Walla  pioneer,  to  me  the  other  day.  And  Mr.  Hinman 
pays  the  same  tribute  to  his  memory.  Not  a  few  col- 
leges established  in  the  West  in  recent  years,  based 
upon  syndicate  land  grants,  would  have  been  spared 
disaster  and  ignominy  if  such  disinterested  generosity 
had  characterized  their  founders. 

But,  to  resume  our  sketch.  While  Mr.  Clark's  hopes 
and  plans  for  a  permanent  school  were  maturing  in  his 
mind,  and  he  was  waiting  the  opportunity  to  put  them 
into  effect,  the  man  was  on  the  ocean  en  route  to  Ore- 
gon who  was  to  bring  him  help  and  encouragement  in 


12 

the  enterprise  that  lay  near  his  heart.  This  was  Rev. 
George  H.  Atkinson,  the  first  to  be  sent  out  by  our 
Home  Missionary  Society  to  carry  the  gospel  to  the 
Pacific  Coast.  With  his  young  wife  he  sailed  from 
Boston  in  October,  1847,  by  way  of  Cape  Horn  and  the 
Sandwich  islands,  reaching  Oregon  City  eight  months 
later,  in  June,  1848,  almost  exactly  fifty  years  ago.  Like 
the  true  New  England  pioneer  missionary  that  he  was, 
Dr.  Atkinson  carried  with  him  into  his  new  field  a 
well-defined  purpose  to  plant  schools  as  well  as  churches 
there,  and  learning  soon  after  his  arrival  of  the  orphan 
school  at  Forest  Grove,  he  rode  over  from  Oregon  City 
and  visited  Mr.  Clark  in  his  log  house.  From  him 
he  learned  that  he  was  seeking  an  opportunity  to  estab- 
Hsh  just  such  a  school  as  himself  had  in  mind.  The 
two  men  immediately  combined  counsel  and  effort  to 
the  accomplishment  of  their  purpose.  The  first  result 
was  an  association  of  ministers,  held  at  Oregon  City  on 
September  21,  1848,  at  which  resolutions  were  passed 
establishing  an  academy  at  Tualatin  Plains — afterwards 
known  as  Forest  Grove. 

This  is  the  event  whose  fiftieth  anniversary  we  ob- 
serve today.  It  was  a  small  beginning  and  not  very 
rich  in  promise  for  the  future,  save  as  these  men  looked 
out  with  the  eye  of  faith  to  see  the  time  when  the 
fertile  plains  about  them  should  be  the  seat  of  a  popu- 
lous and  prosperous  commonwealth,  and  upon  the  foun- 
dations which  they  laid  that  day  other  hands  should 
build  a  superstructure  that  in  due  time  should  become 
a  center  of  influence  throughout  that  commonwealth. 
We  have  lived  to  see  that  day  beginning  to  dawn  for 
Oregon  and  Pacific  University. 

Among  all  the  pioneers  of  the  state  no  man  has  had  a 
clearer  vision  of  its  possibilities  than  had  Dr.  Atkin- 


13 

son.  Probably  there  was  none  who  had  so  complete 
and  intimate  knowledge  of  its  almost  boundless  re- 
sources. And  his  interest  in  every  form  of  material  de- 
velopment was  very  keen.  He  was  continually  preach- 
ing the  gospel  of  hope  for  the  future  development  ot 
Oregon,  not  only  to  us  at  home,  but  also  the  friends 
on  the  other  side  of  the  continent,  in  the  pulpit,  on  the 
platform,  and  in  the  public  press.  Among  the  inter- 
ests which  lay  nearest  his  heart  was  the  college  in  whose 
founding  he  took  a  leading  part.  To  the  time  of  his 
death  ten  years  ago  he  was  the  first  secretary  of  its 
board  of  trustees;  was  always  present  at  its  annual  com- 
mencements, and  always  remembered  to  pray  on  a  set 
day  of  the  week  for  its  welfare. 

Perhaps  no  single  service  which  Dr.  Atkinson  per- 
formed for  the  college  was  greater  or  of  more  far- 
reaching  importance  in  its  results  than  that  of  securing 
for  it  the  man  who  was  its  first  president.  For  five 
years  after  the  founding  of  the  academy  there  were  no 
permanent  teachers,  nor  an  established  curriculum. 
Devoted  and  earnest  men  like  D.  R.  Williams,  Gushing 
Eells  and  J.  M.  Keeler  taught  in  the  log  church  and 
schoolhouse  during  this  time,  but  little  progress  was 
made  towards  a  permanent  institution.  And  Dr.  Atkin- 
son went  East — the  great  source  from  which  many 
blessings  flow,  both  of  money  and  men — to  obtain  if 
possible  aid  for  his  infant  enterprises  in  Oregon.  From 
the  College  Society  he  obtained  a  grant  of  $600  per 
year,  and  discovered  a  man  whom  he  persuaded  to  be- 
come head  of  the  school  at  Tualatin  Plains,  and  develop 
it  into  a  college.  This  was  Sidney  Harper  Marsh,  a 
young  Vermonter,  28  years  old,  just  out  of  the  sem- 
inary, and  looking  about  for  an  opening  to  his  life's 
work.     From  several  generations  of  teachers  he    in- 


14 

herited — if  such  things  are  inherited — a  teacher's  taste 
and  traits.  His  father  was  President  James  Marsh,  of  the 
University  of  Vermont,  who,  though  he  died  at  the  early 
age  of  48,  stood  among  the  very  first  of  American  edu- 
cators sixty  years  ago;  and  his  grandfather  was  Eleazer 
Wheelock,  the  first  president  of  Dartmouth  College, 
and  who  assisted  with  his  own  hands  in  clearing  the 
ground  for  the  present  campus  of  that  institution.  A 
man  with  such  antecedents  and  such  ancestral  examples 
could  scarcely  fail  to  have  the  instincts  of  a  teacher,  and 
Mr.  Marsh  accepted  enthusiastically  the  invitation  to 
go  out  to  Oregon  and  try  to  build  up  in  that  far  terri- 
tory a  college  similar  to  those  with  which  he  was  famil- 
iar in  New  England.  He  had  no  knowledge  of  pioneer 
conditions;  he  had  been  reared  in  a  scholarly  home 
amid  the  refinements  of  the  best  society  of  a  university 
town,  and  had  to  meet  in  his  new  field  his  first  expe- 
rience of  the  hardships  and  deprivations  of  frontier  life. 
But,  though  he  came  to  Oregon  the  tenderest  sort  of 
a  tenderfoot,  he  had  those  qualities  of  heart  and  head 
which  develop  the  sturdiest  of  pioneers.  He  had  come 
with  the  purpose  of  remaining  for  his  life  work,  and 
remain  he  did,  though  amid  discouragements  and  diffi- 
culties that  at  times  almost  completely  disheartened 
him.  The  realization  that  the  country  was  hardly  yet 
prepared  for  the  sort  of  work  which  he  came  to  estab- 
Hsh  struck  Hke  a  blow  upon  his  sensitive  spirit,  and 
sometimes  it  seemed  to  him  that  he  had  come  ten 
years  too  soon,  the  struggle  and  discouragement  he  was 
compelled  to  endure  were  so  great.  However,  he  set 
promptly  and  resolutely  to  work,  secured  from  the 
state  a  new  charter  giving  the  young  institution  col- 
legiate powers,  arranged  a  full  curriculum  of  college 
studies,  which  he  tried  to  persuade  students  to  enter. 


15 


Most  of  the  work  of  college  instruction  he  was  com- 
pelled to  do  himself,  and  with  almost  none  of  those 
appliances  which  we  have  come  to  beheve  essential  to 
successful  teaching.  And  there  was , little  in  his  out- 
ward circumstances  that  afforded  encouragement  or 
comfort  to  an  overworked  and  anxious  man.  Without 
any  place  he  could  call  home  he  used  as  study  and 
chamber  the  unfinished  second  story  of  the  building  we 
now  call  Science  Hall,  climbing  to  it  by  a  ladder  and 
making  his  bed  upon  trestles  standing  upon  the  joists 
of  the  unfloored  room.  Very  often,  when  the  dis- 
couragements of  the  situation  seemed  almost  over- 
whelming, he  said  to  me  once,  he  would  go  and  talk 
with  Grandma  Brown,  and  the  good  soul  would  cheer 
him  up  and  bid  him  take  heart,  for  she  believed  he  was 
doing  the  Lord's  work,  and  in  the  right  way.  Nothing 
but  a  grim  determination  to  "stay  it  out"  prevented 
him  from  giving  up  the  task  and  going  back  to  the  com- 
forts of  an  Eastern  life. 

After  two  or  three  years  of  this  work  there  began 
an  improvement;  more  students  came,  and  they  began 
to  stay  long  enough  to  get  into  college  classes.  There 
was  need  of  larger  income  than  the  small  amount  which 
came  from  the  College  Society,  and  he  went  East  in 
1859  and  secured  about  $20,000  as  a  permanent  fund; 
six  years  later  he  raised  about  the  same  amount  in  the 
same  way.  In  1870  he  made  a  third  trip  for  a  similar 
purpose,  and  his  friend,  A.  S.  Hatch,  of  New  York,  of 
the  firm  of  Fisk  &  Hatch,  bankers,  said  to  him:  "You 
have  made  no  provision  for  yourself.  The  other  teach- 
ers are  being  provided  for.  What  about  your  own 
family?"  He  proposed  a  presidential  endowment  fund, 
headed  the  subscription  with  a  generous  amount,  and 
by  a  personal  canvass  among  his  friends  secured  in  a  few 


16 

weeks  an  additional  $20,000  of  endowment.  President 
Marsh  also  in  these  visits  secured  additional  teachers, 
and  somewhat  more  than  5,000  volumes  for  a  college 
library.  The  college  was  thus  put  upon  what,  for 
those  times,  was  a  good  foundation.  The  number  of 
students  increased  steadily,  and  the  faculty  was  enlarged 
to  meet  the  needs  of  the  time. 

This  in  a  few  words  is  the  work  for  which  we  do 
honor  to  President  Marsh.  Upon  the  academy  which 
he  found  weak  and  small  he  built  a  college,  and  left  it 
well  organized,  fairly  well  equipped,  with  an  endow- 
ment sufficient  for  its  needs  at  that  time,  and  a  char- 
acter established  for  all  time  for  sound  learning  and 
thorough  instruction. 

He  died  in  February,  1879,  having  been  Pacific  Uni- 
versity's first  president  for  twenty-five  years. 

It  would  be  an  act  of  sheer  injustice  to  fail  to  men- 
tion briefly  in  this  connection  some  of  the  men  who 
rendered  valuable  assistance  to  the  academy  and  col- 
lege in  its  early  days.  Rev.  Elkanah  Walker  and  his 
wife,  devoted  missionaries  to  the  Indians,  who  were 
driven  out  of  the  Walla  Walla  country  by  the  Whit- 
man massacre  and  settled  at  Forest  Grove,  made  gen- 
erous gifts  of  land,  and  encouraged  the  enterprise  in 
many  ways. 

Dea.  T.  G.  Naylor,  Alvin  T.  Smith  and  Henry  Buxton 
also  gave  generously  to  its  support,  and  the  erection 
of  the  first  college  building.  Rev.  Gushing  Eells  was  one 
of  the  earliest  teachers,  laboring  with  rare  zeal  and  de- 
votion, both  before  President  Marsh's  arrival  and 
afterwards.  He  also  founded  a  chair  in  the  college, 
giving  of  his  slender  means  a  generous  sum  of  money, 
which,  by  the  careful  husbanding  of  the  treasurer,  is 


17 

now  nearly  large  enough  to  make  it  available  for  the 
purposes  for  which  it  was  given.  He  was  a  missionary 
of  the  sturdiest  sort.  Eschewingthecomfortsof  civilized 
life,  and  pushing  his  way  beyond  the  advancing  fronusr, 
he  constantly  courted  the  hardships  of  pioneer  life,  even 
after  he  had  reached  an  advanced  age.  His  later  years 
were  largely  devoted  to  the  building  up  of  Whitman 
College,  of  which  he  was  the  founder. 

Another  of  the  early  teachers  was  E.  D.  Shattuck,  a 
native  of  Vermont,  who  has  given  all  the  active  years 
of  a  long  and  useful  life  to  the  interests  of  his  adopted 
state.  He  is  today  one  of  the  most  honored  jurists  of 
this  commonwealth,  having  been  kept  for  many  years 
by  the  votes  of  men  of  all  parties  upon  the  bench  of 
the  most  important  judicial  circuit  in  Oregon,  from 
which  he  retired  only  last  week,  revered  both  for  his 
upright  character  and  his  legal  attainments.  (We  had 
hoped  to  be  honored  by  his  presence  with  us  today.) 

Another  of  the  earliest  teachers — perhaps,  indeed, 
the  oldest  living  teacher  of  Tualatin  Academy — we  are 
exceedingly  glad  to  have  among  our  guests  on  this 
occasion,  Mrs.  Elizabeth  Miller  Wilson,  of  The  Dalles, 
Or.     She  was  a  teacher  here  in  the  year  185 1. 

A  teacher  who  came  to  assist  President  Marsh  when 
the  work  of  the  college  had  begun  to  grow  and  was 
become  too  heavy  for  one  man;  who  labored  unceas- 
ingly with  him  in  all  his  plans,  and  bore  the  heaviest 
burden  of  the  work  during  his  absence  in  the  East,  was 
Rev.  Horace  Lyman.  Beloved  as  a  father  by  students 
who  came  under  his  influence,  held  in  highest  honor  by 
all  who  knew  him,  the  memory  of  Father  Lyman  is 
cherished  among  us  today. 

Hon.  Alanson  Hinman,  for  many  years  the  honored 


18 

and  revered  president  of  the  trustees,  is  the  only  sur- 
viving member  of  the  original  board  appointed  when 
the  college  was  incorporated  in  1854.  Always  a  firm 
supporter  of  President  Marsh  and  a  sturdy  defender 
of  the  best  interests  of  the  college,  he  stood  Hke  a  rock 
when  the  shock  came,  and  almost  unaided  and  alone 
prevented  the  flood  of  sectarian  control  from  sweeping 
it  from  its  moorings.  The  tribute  of  the  poet  Horace 
to  his  friend  Augustus  we  pay  to  thee:  ''Serus  in  coe- 
lum  redeas"  (May  it  be  long  ere  you  return  to  heaven). 
After  an  interim  of  one  year  from  the  death  of  Dr. 
Marsh,  Rev.  John  R.  Herrick  succeeded  to  the  presi- 
dency, retiring  three  years  later.  During  his  admin- 
istration the  Ladies'  Hall  was  built  with  funds  secured 
by  him  from  Eastern  friends.  Two  years  ago  the  trus- 
tees named  the  building  ''Herrick  Hall"  in  his  honor. 

Jacob  F.  Ellis  was  the  third  president,  from  1883 
to  1 89 1,  when  the  present  administration  came  in. 

These  seven  years  since  1891  have  marked  a  notable 
advance  in  the  work  of  the  college  along  all  lines.  The 
courses  of  study  have  been  greatly  extended,  and  the 
standard  raised;  the  corps  of  instructors  has  been 
strengthened,  and  the  enrollment  of  students  increased. 
This  period  has  seen  the  erection  of  this  fine  building,  a 
memorial  to  the  first  president,  at  a  cost  of  nearly  $50,- 
000,  largely  contributed  by  residents  of  this  town  and 
the  state;  and,  last  of  all,  the  securing  of  the  Pearsons 
fund,  a  work  which  for  three  years  has  haunted  the  day 
dreams  and  night  dreams  of  the  man  who  has  accom- 
pHshed  the  task.  With  a  persistence  and  a  devotion  to 
duty  derived  doubtless  from  his  Scotch-Irish  ancestry 
and  his  birth  in  old  Ulster,  he  has  persevered  in  the 
face  of  the  greatest  difficulties.    We  rejoice  in  the  sue- 


19 

cess  which  he  has  achieved.  We  are  proud  of  him 
whom  the  Congregationahst  characterized  as  "a.  schol- 
arly and  winsome  gentleman,"  able  thus  to  win  some 
golden  opinions  for  himself  and  golden  jducats  for  Pacific 
University. 

The  academy  was  founded  fifty  years  ago,  and  we 
very  properly  observe  its  golden  jubilee  at  this  time. 
But  fifty  years  may  seem  a  long  time  in  the  history  of  an 
institution,  and  our  growth  may  appear  slow.  Indeed, 
in  these  latter  days,  under  the  benevolent  influence  of 
a  Rockefeller  or  a  Leland  Stanford,  great  universities 
have  sprung  up  in  a  single  night;  they  have  come  into 
existence  full  grown  and  well  equipped.  But  not  such 
has  been  the  history  of  most  of  the  colleges  that  have 
had  largest  part  in  molding  our  national  character. 
They  began  in  a  small  way.  Their  early  growth  was 
slow  and  painful.  They  came  to  greatness  only 
through  much  struggle  and  hardship  and  disappointing 
labor.  And  is  it  not  quite  possible  that  the  best  work 
of  Harvard,  Yale  and  Princeton — the  work  that  has 
counted  for  most  in  the  interest  of  humanity  and  civili- 
zation— was  done  in  the  days  when  they  were  small, 
when  equipment  was  limited  and  instructors  were  few? 
That  work  was  done  when  the  community  was  in  a  for- 
mative condition,  and  the  molding  influence  of  a  few 
devoted  men  might  count  for  much.  Who  shall  esti- 
mate the  influence  of  these  colleges,  even  in  their  day 
of  small  things,  upon  the  pioneer  life  of  our  country,  in 
helping  to  estabHsh  upon  this  continent  the  grandest 
civilization  which  the  world  has  seen?  America  stands 
today  unrivaled  among  the  nations  as  an  example  of 
free  popular  government;  and  the  pioneer  Christian 
college  has  been  a  mighty  factor  in  producing  this  re- 
sult. 


20 

Few  of  the  New  England  colleges,  which  began 
under  similar  conditions,  were  more  advanced  at  th^ir 
jubilee  than  is  Pacific  University  today.  Yale  and 
Harvard  were  insignificant  institutions,  with  the  slen- 
derest of  endowment  or  equipment.  Williams  was 
founded  in  1793,  and  fifty  years  later  its  faculty  com- 
prised three  professors  and  two  tutors.  It  had  two 
buildings,  and  an  endowment  of  about  $50,000.  When 
Bowdoin  was  50  years  old  it  had  four  or  five  buildings, 
but  all  small.  There  were  seven  professors  and  159 
students.  Its  income-yielding  funds  amounted  to 
$112,000,  with  other  college  property  estimated  at 
$58,000.  It  had  a  library  of  23,000  volumes,  mostly 
gifts,  the  amount  expended  annually  upon  the  library 
being  $200.  "It  felt  itself  nearly  upon  an  equality 
with  Harvard  at  that  time,"  says  my  informant. 

There  are  peculiar  reasons  why  the  growth  of  Tual- 
atin Academy  into  the  college,  and  the  growth  of  the 
college,  have  been  slow.  Two  conditions  at  least  at 
the  beginning  are  conspicuous — lack  of  funds  and  ab- 
sence of  a  large  contiguous  population.  There  were 
hardly  a  dozen  families  within  a  half  dozen  miles  of  the 
campus  at  the  time  this  institution  was  founded.  The 
territorial  government  of  Oregon  was  not  set  up  till 
the  following  year,  and  the  entire  Northwest  Territory, 
a  region  more  than  two  and  one-half  times  as  large 
as  all  of  New  England,  had,  at  the  census  two  years 
later,  only  13,000  people;  and  such  was  its  distance 
and  isolation  from  the  populous  centers  of  the  country 
that  its  development  was  necessarily  exceedingly  slow. 

For  many  years  the  Sandwich  Islands  formed  the 
base  of  supplies  for  Oregon,  and  later,  until  a  compara- 
tively recent  date,  the  channels  of  commerce  were 
reached  only  through  California.     It  was  not  till  the 


21 

fall  of  1883 — less  than  15  years  ago — that  Ore^e^on  had 
its  first  railroad  connection  with  the  rest  of  the  coun- 
try. 

We  think  the  growth  of  the  college  has  kept  pace 
with  the  growth  of  the  state;  and  for  both  we  believe 
a  larger  future  is  just  before.  When  our  country  has 
fairly  entered  upon  its  era  of  territorial  extension,  when 
Hawaii  has  become  fully  ours,  and  the  far  Philippines  a 
part  of  our  insular  possessions,  then  shall  this  Pacific  Coast 
country  come  into  its  rightful  heritage.  Its  population 
will  grow  to  number  millions;  its  fertile  plains  and  val- 
leys will  be  cultivated;  its  wonderful  resources  of  tim- 
ber, minerals  and  water-power  will  be  developed,  and 
its  existing  institutions  will  have  opportunity  for 
growth  and  for  influence  far  beyond  even  the  fondest 
hopes  of  the  men  who  labored  unceasingly  to  found 
them. 

President  McCLELLAND:  Just  in  this  connection, 
while  the  history  of  the  early  days  of  this  institution  is 
fresh  in  our  minds,  I  want  to  merely  introduce  to  the 
audience  Deacon  Peter  H.  Hatch  (great  applause),  the 
man  who  came  out  from  Oregon  City  with  Dr.  Atkin- 
son, all  the  way  on  foot,  to  plan  with  Rev.  Harvey 
Clark  for  founding  this  institution.  We  are  honored 
by  his  presence  today.  (Applause.)  He  was  one  of 
the  first  trustees  of  the  institution.  He  wants  to  say 
just  a  word. 

Deacon  HATCH :  One  thing  is  brought  to  my  mind 
that  I  want  to  speak  of.  There  is  no  more  tender  rec- 
ollection than  one  thing  in  connection  with  this  old 
log  cabin  that  was  built  for  "Grandma  Brown."  The 
other  day  I  found  a  letter  from  Mrs.  Tabitha  Brown,  in 
which  she  said:  "I  wish  you  would  give  me  something 
in  writing  so  that  I  can  always  call  that  lot  my  own.** 


22 

So  I  wrote  a  deed  to  the  lot  and  gave  it  to  her.  That 
was  the  ground  that  has  been  mentioned  in  Professor 
Ferrin's  address  today.  Where  it  was  I  have  forgot- 
ten. There  was  a  Httle  shanty  first  built  on  it,  but 
that  was  not  big  enough  after  a  little  while,  and  then 
we  built  the  log  house.  They  were  not  able  to  hire 
it  built,  and  I  said:  "I  believe  I  can  build  that  log 
house,"  and  I  went  to  work  and  pulled  up  the  logs 
and  built  the  house,  and  it  answered  for  my  house  and 
schoolhouse  and  church;  and  I  tell  you,  my  friends,  I 
felt  more  at  home  there  than  I  do  here  today.  But 
the  results  are  enough  to  pay  me  for  all  the  labor  I 
did,  and  I  wish  you  God-speed.  I  have  labored  all  my 
days  to  build  up  something  good  if  I  could,  and  have 
the  satisfaction  to  see  that  wherever  I  have  torn  down 
something  better  has  grown  up  its  place.     (Applause.) 

President  McCLELLAND:  We  are  fortunate  to- 
day in  having  with  us  one  of  our  venerable  trustees,  a 
man  known  and  honored  not  only  in  this  state  but 
throughout  the  whole  country — Senator  Corbett. 
(Applause.)  He  has  represented  this  state  in  the 
years  gone  by  in  the  United  States  senate,  and  though 
I  am  not  a  politician  today,  yet  some  of  us  are  hoping 
that  he  will  very  soon  represent  this  state  again  in  the 
United  States  senate.  (Applause.)  Mind  you,  I  have 
no  secrets  to  let  out,  for  I  know  nothing  about  what 
is  in  the  minds  of  the  politicians;  I  am  simply  express- 
ing the  hope  of  a  great  many  citizens  of  Oregon.  Mr. 
Corbett  has  a  brief  financial  statement  to  make  which 
I  think  will  be  of  interest  to  this  audience. 

Senator  CORBETT:  Ladies  and  Gentlemen:  Per- 
haps some  little  sketch  or  statement  in  reference  to 
the  financial  condition  of  the  institution  in  connection 
with  its  early  history  will  supply  the  missing  link  of 


23 

Tabitha  Brown*s  cottage.     Tabitha  Brown  gave  to  the 
institution  the  log  house  and  lot  on  which  it  was  sit- 
uated.    We  rented  it  for  a  time,  and  finally  sold  it  so 
that  it  produced  $506.60.     That  stsn  has  been  kept 
sacred,  and  has  been  reinvested  from  time  to  time,  un- 
til the  sum  now  reaches  $3,823.17.     (Great  applause.) 
The  gift  has  been  cherished  and  preserved,  and  it  is 
the  intention  of  the  trustees  to  preserve  this  fund  until 
it  shall  reach  a  sufficient  sum  to  maintain  a  professor- 
ship.    The  Rev.  Mr.  Eells  also  left  a  certain  amount  of 
lots  and  property  in  the  town  of  Forest  Grove,  which 
sold  for  $2,645.     It  now  reaches  the  sum  of  $10,683 
from  reinvestment  and  care.     It  is  intended  to  continue 
the  reinvestment  until  it  shall  reach  a  sufficient  sum  to 
maintain     a     professorship.     President     Marsh,     who 
labored  so  faithfully,  and  with  whom  I  had  great  sym- 
pathy in  his  active  efforts  in  establishing  this  institu- 
tion and  maintaining  it  through  all  the  trials  and  tribu- 
latons,  left  of  his  slender  means  a  piece  of  land  which 
we  sold  for    $659.57.     It  now    reaches    the    sum  of 
$5,176.53.     (Applause.)     This  sum  also  we  intend  to 
continue  to  reinvest  until  it  shall  reach  a  sufificient  sum 
to  maintain  a  professorship.     Mrs.  Margaret  Lyman, 
the  widow  of  Professor  Horace  Lyman,  two  years  ago 
gave    $1,000,    which    is    being    reinvested,  and    now 
amounts  to  $1,120.     There  is  also  a  memorial  fund, 
called  the  Benedict  fund,  given  for  the  purpose  of  aid- 
ing needy  students,  which  amounts  to  $2,169.     ^^• 
Charles  Atkinson,  of    Moline,  111.,  a    brother    of    Dr. 
George  H.  Atkinson,  gave  to  the  institution  $10,000, 
the  income  of  which  was  to  be  used  for  the  same  pur- 
pose.    These   funds  have  been   kept  separate,  and  the 
income  used  as  directed. 

I  thouofht  this  statement  would  show  to  vou  and  to 


24 

those  of  your  friends  who  may  desire  to  contribute  to 
an  institution  which  will  sacredly  care  for  the  funds, 
how  small  sums  of  money  may  eventually  reach  to  thou- 
sands and  accrue  to  the  benefit  of  the  institution.  There 
are  many  gentlemen  here  who  know  of  the  efforts  that 
have  been  made  in  securing  funds  from  time  to  time; 
and  it  is  hoped  that  this  day  may  mark  a  new  era  in  the 
advancement  of  this  institution. 

The  late  realization  of  the  raising  of  the  $100,000,  in 
connection  with  the  $50,000  given  by  Dr.  Pearsons, 
will  place  the  institution  on  a  financial  basis  which  will 
enabb  it  to  perform  a  very  useful  work,  a  work  which, 
if  not  so  great  as  that  of  many  Eastern  colleges,  we 
hope  will  1:.  time  compare  favorably  therewith.  (Ap- 
plause.) 

President  McCLELLAND:  Senator  Corbe.t's  mod- 
esty prevented  him  from  reading  the  peroration  to  his 
address.  Just  now  we  have  completed,  through  the 
generosity  of  two  gentlemen  in  Philadelphia — Mr.  John 
H.  Converse,  and  Dr.  Williams,  of  the  Baldwin  Loco- 
motive Works,  and  another  gentleman  in  Oregon,  who 
was  so  modest  just  now  as  not  to  mention  the  fact — a 
chair  of  mathematics,  which  will  for  the  years  to  come — 
many  of  them,  we  hope — accrue  to  the  benefit  of  the 
professor  who  read  his  able  and  interesting  paper  this 
afternoon.  (Applause.)  Mr.  Converse  and  Dr.  Will- 
iams gave  $10,000  for  this  Vermont  chair  of  mathe- 
matics, on  condition  that  a  sufficient  sum  should  be 
added  to  that  to  bring  it  up  to  $25,000.  When  I  re- 
ported this  to  the  trustees.  Senator  Corbett,  before 
we  left  the  meeting,  made  good  the  condition,  only 
that   he  added  $3,000  more,  bringing  it  up   to  $28,- 


25 

oco  (applause),  his  part  of  this  Vermont  chair  being 
$18,000. 

While  we  are  on  this  question  of  funds,  I  want  to 
read  a  brief  letter  from  Dr.  Pearsons.  -  Previous  to  this 
time  he  sent  us  his  check  for  $15,000  to  do  the  last 
work  on  Marsh  Memorial  Hall.  I  received  this  letter 
from  him  two  days  ago: 

^'President  McClelland:     I  inclose  check  for  $35,- 

000.  I  want  you  to  hold  this  check  until  the  nth  of 
July,  and  then  give  it  to  your  treasurer.  The  $50,000 
I  have  now  given  you  belongs  to  the  Vermont  con- 
tingency. Atkinson  was  a  schoolmate  of  mine  and 
Marsh  was  an  old  friend.  Please  give  me  a  full  ac- 
count of  your  endowment,  so  that  I  can  file  it  away 
with  others.  I  am  pleased  with  your  work,  and  hope 
you  will  keep  the  endowment  sacred.  You  have 
worked  hard  to  get  it,  and  I  hope  it  will  go  in  perpe- 
tuity and  do  good  to  the  coming  generations.     Truly, 

"D.  K.  PEARSONS." 

(Great  applause.)  It  has  not  been  my  pleasure  often 
to  exhibit  a  check  for  $35,000,  but  this  is  a  veritable 
check,  and  I  leave  it  to  one  of  our  honored  trustees 
to  say — 

(Here,  amid  the  continued  applause,  the  President 
turned  and  exhibited  the  check  to  Mr.  Corbett,  who 
said,  'It  is  good."  President  McClelland  then  con- 
tinued.): 

It  bears  on  its  face  a  stamp;  it  has  contributed  2  cents 
to  the  prosecution  of  the  war  against  Spain  and  for 
the  freedom  of  Cuba.     (Great  applause.) 

Dr.  BARTON,  of  Boston,  was  recognized  by  the 
President  as  soon  as  the  enthusiasm  had  measurably 
subsided,  and  he  said: 


26 

Mr.  President:  It  might  be  well  for  this  whole  con- 
gregation to  put  its  stamp  upon  these  proceedings,  and 
have  a  little  share  in  this  rejoicing  and  in  the  thanks 
which  must  go  forth  from  this  institution  to  Dr.  Pear- 
sons. I  have  prepared,  by  request,  the  resolution 
which  I  now  ofifer  to  be  adopted  by  this  mass  meeting, 
if  you  shall  so  please: 

"Resolved,  That  the  delegates  and  attendants  of  the 
National  Council,  gathered  at  Forest  Grove  on  this 
day  when  the  receipt  of  a  check  from  Dr.  D.  K,  Pear- 
sons completes  the  $150,000  endowment  of  Pacific  Uni- 
versity, desire  to  express  our  gratification  and  that  of 
the  churches  and  schools  which  we  represent,  in  the 
success  of  this  protracted  and  heroic  effort,  and  our 
thanks  to  Dr.  Pearsons  for  this  worthy  and  generous 
gift;  and  we  rejoice  with  him  in  the  rare  privilege  which 
he  is  enjoying  of  building  his  own  large  effort  into  so 
many  of  the  institutions  which  are  to  rule  the  future." 

I  move  the  adopton  of  this  resolution. 
The  motion  was  seconded,  and  the  resolution  was 
unanimously  adopted  by  a  rising  vote. 

President  McCLELLAND:  I  heard  Dr.  MacKenzie, 
not  very  long  ago,  on  an  anniversary  occasion,  speak 
of  the  early  days  of  Harvard  in  connection  with  the 
history  of  his  own  great  church  in  Cambridge.  Speak- 
ing of  the  time  when  that  church,  which  was  so  closely 
associated  with  Harvard,  had  reached  its  fiftieth  year, 
he  said  that  "That  year  seven  men  were  graduated  from 
Harvard,  but  in  that  time  seven  men  were  a  multitude." 
In  1862  one  man  was  graduated  from  Pacific  University, 
who  in  that  day  and  from  that  day  to  this  has  been  a 
host  in  himself.  You  have  heard  from  Oregon  recently 
(the  state  had  just  been  carried  for  sound  money);  and 


27 

in  hearing  from  Oregon  you  have  heard  from  Harvey 
W.  Scott  (applause),  the  first  graduate  of  Pacific  Uni- 
versity. He  knows  how  to  write  so  that  his  words 
go  forth  with  the  precision  of  a  mim^-ball  and  with 
the  force  of  a  siege-gun,  when  there  is  any  great  cause 
contending  for  the  mastery.  I  have  the  very  great 
pleasure  of  introducing  to  you  this  afternoon  Harvey 
W.  Scott,  the  editor  of  the  Oregonian.  (Great  ap- 
plause.) 

Mr.  SCOTT:  Mr.  President  and  Friends:  Wel- 
come as  I  am  always  told  I  am  to  this,  my  old  home 
(and  I  always  feel  at  home  here),  so  I  join  today  in 
welcoming  here  our  friends  from  abroad,  our  friends 
from  other  states,  our  friends  of  the  Congregational 
Association  who  have  done  us  the  honor  to  pay  us  this 
visit  this  day,  and  who  have  kindly  come  here  to  see 
what  we  are  doing  at  this  out-post  of  the  American 
continent. 

This  college  has  always  been  nominally  Congrega- 
tional, but  only  nominally  so;  it  has  not  been  sectarian. 
It  is  nominally  Congregational,  but  Congregationalism 
itself  is  somewhat  nominal,  if  I  may  say  so.  (Laughter 
and  applause.)  It  is  independent;  it  covers  a  very  wide 
range.  It  is  a  far  cry,  a  long  reach,  in  the  matter  of 
doctrine,  from  Jonathan  Edwards  to  Lyman  Abbott. 
(Applause.)  But  the  school  includes  much  that  is  not 
even  nominally  or  professedly  Congregational,  or  be- 
longing to  any  religious  denomination  whatever.  Its 
scope  is  as  broad  as  the  educational  work  of  this  coun- 
try. (Applause.)  And  it  is  doing  and  has  done  as 
much  for  education  in  this  country  as  any  of  our  col- 
leges whatever,  and  I  am  sure  that  colleges  or  univer- 
sities supported  by  our  states  have  not — not  one  of 
them  has — done  more  than  this.     Its  work  during  these 


28 

fifty  years  shows  for  itself;  'the  results  are  before  the 
world. 

Devotion  to  a  great  duty,  devotion  to  a  high  ideal, 
admits  of  no  obstacles,  yields  to  no  discouragements, 
confesses  to  no  defeats.  The  difficulties  of  founding 
this  institution  have  been  great,  but  the  difficulties 
have  never  been  taken  account  of  by  those  who  have 
pursued  this  work.  In  a  state  or  community  as  remote 
as  this  from  the  great  centers  of  population  and  from 
the  larger  material  and  commercial  influences  of  the 
country,  in  a  state  where  population  is*  sparse — and 
the  whole  population  of  the  state  of  Oregon  at  this 
moment  is  perhaps  not  equal  to  the  population  of  the 
city  of  Boston — it  is  difficult,  I  say,  in  such  a  commun- 
ity, to  found  and  maintain  a  college.  But  we  believe 
— we  know,  indeed — that  the  greatest  of  the  difficulties 
have  passed.  It  has  been  as  difficult,  however,  let  me 
say,  by  way  of  illustration,  to  carry  on  this  work  as  it 
has  been  in  another  field  of  labor  that  I  may  mention 
because  I  am  acquainted  with  it  particularly,  to  make  a 
newspaper  in  a  community  so  widely  dispersed  and  so 
small  in  population  as  this.  But  this  work,  and  every 
other  work  in  the  country,  has  gone  forward,  and  the 
success  of  this  work  and  of  the  others  has  been  largely 
due  to  the  self-sacrificing  devotion  of  those  who  have 
pursued  those  objects.  There  has  been  no  respite,  no 
pastime,  no  holiday  work  in  the  business;  it  has  all 
been  earnest,  energetic  labor. 

I  wish  to  say  a  word — as  I  do  at  every  time  when  I 
have  opportunity  to  speak  it — in  favor  of  these  smaller 
colleges  of  the  country.  I  believe  these  smaller  col- 
leges are  the  seed-fields  of  our  future  growth,  of  our 
harvest  to  come.     I  do  not  undervalue  the  greater  uni- 


29 

versities.     Each   state   is 'endeavoring  to  build   up   a 
state  university;  some  of  the  greatest  universities  of  the 
country  are  supported  as  state  institutions;  and  other 
great  universities  in   our  Eastern  states  are  standing 
upon  their  own  merits  and  holding  out  to  the  educa- 
tional world  great  promise  and  prospects.     Such  there 
are;  but  these  great  universities  cannot,  in  my  judg- 
ment, and  ought  not  to  be  permitted  to  supersede  these 
smaller  colleges.     These  colleges  of  the  country  exert 
an  influence   in   the   communities   in   which    they   are 
situated,  and   carry   their  influence   into   the   country 
around  them.     The  country  cannot  do  without  them. 
(Great   applause.)     It    is   our   duty   to   support    these 
smaller  colleges,  and  we  should  in  no  wise  undervalue 
them,  much  less  should  we  be  ashamed  of  them.     (Ap- 
plause.)    The  future  of  each  of  our  states  is  largely 
wrapped  up  in  them;  they  carry  our  educational  future. 
Nor  do  I  believe  that  it  is  necessary  for  us  to  send  our 
sons  and  daughters  away  to  the  great  universities  to 
be  educated.     I  am  not  of  those  who  believe  that.     It 
is  well  enough,  indeed,  and  I  do  not  speak  against  it; 
but    I  do  say  that    it  is  far  better  to  educate   our  sons 
and    daughters    among  us.     Certain     advantages,    no 
doubt  it  may  be  asserted,  will  accrue — must  accrue — to 
■  those  who  are  sent  away  from  home  to  the  greater 
universities;  but  it  seems  to  me  that  those  who  are  to 
live  here  and  to  work  here  can  be  educated  best  in 
touch  with  our  own   surroundings.     It   seems  to   me 
that   our  experience — the  experience  in   this  country 
during  the  last   forty  years — very  well  supports  that 
contention.     We  are  situated  here  where  we  have  a  full 
view  of  the  world  around  us.     We  are  not  provincial. 
Will  our  Eastern  friends  permit  me  to  say  that  the  East 


30 

always  seems  to  me  far  more  provincial  than  the  West. 
(Great  laughter  and  applause.)  We  stand  here  where 
we  have  a  wider  survey  than  is  had  elsewhere.  We 
know  from  this  point  what  is  going  on  in  all  parts  of 
the  world.  We  are  in  touch  here  with  every  country 
in  the  world.  That  is  perfectly  true.  We  know  becter 
what  is  going  on  in  Valparaiso,  in  Calcutta,  in  Constan- 
tinople, in  the  islands  of  the  sea  and  the  ends  of  the 
earth,  than  most  of  the  population  in  New  York  or 
Boston.  (Laughter  and  applause.)  And  the  reason  is 
this:  that  our  attention  is  not  directed  solely  to  our  own 
little  interests.  There  they  are  directed  to  their  own 
interests — I  will  not  say  they  are  small;  but  if  any  one 
who  has  been  brought  up  in  the  West  and  Hves  in  the 
West  wishes  to  see  provincialism,  let  him  go  to  the 
great  city  of  New  York.  It  thinks  that  it  is  abso- 
lutely the  center  of  the  universe;  it  knows  nothing  of 
the  American  continent,  or  cares  Httle  about  it;  and  I 
must  say  that  in  regard  to  Boston  or  Baltimore  it  is 
not  very  much  different.  (Laughter.)  Now,  that  is 
not  strange.  They  are  centered  within  themselves. 
But  we  have  relations  with ^ the  world  at  large;  rela- 
tions that  come  intimately  home  to  a  greater  propor- 
tion of  our  people  than  in  the  great  cities  and  communi- 
ties of  the  East.  They  live  there  within  themselves. 
We  do  not  for  one  moment  suppose  that  we  are  the 
universe!  (Great  laughter  and  applause.)  But  we 
stand  on  heights  here;  on  our  mountain  heights  from 
which  we  see  the  world.  We  do  not  view  the  world 
solely  from  the  lowlands — the  netherlands — of  our  own 
private  views  and  interests,  but  we  think  from  greater 
heights. 

This  institution  is  beginning  now  a  fine  growth.  The 
foundation  of  that  growth  lies  far  back;  it  lies  back  in 


31 

the  great  effort  that  has  been  made  here,  beginning 
with  the  work  of  Dr.  Atkinson  and  Grandma  Brown 
and  Deacon  Hatch,  seconded  by  the  work  of  the  first 
president.  Dr.  Marsh,  of  blessed  and  hallowed  memory. 
It  is  a  place  to  which  our  youth  can  be  sent  for  instruc- 
tion, where  the  attention  will  not  be  distracted  from 
their  proper  studies.  And  I  believe  that  while  Soc- 
rates and  Isaiah  speak  the  same  words  everywhere,  to 
all  people,  yet  I  think  that  our  facilities,  our  means  for 
understanding  what  they  say,  are  equal  here  to  those  ex- 
isting in  any  part  of  the  world.  Here  is  a  fine  place 
for  study,  under  the  best  influences  and  direction.  It 
is  almost  the  same  or  equal  to  that  described  in  Mil- 
ton's magnificent  verse  about  the — 

"Olive  grove  of  Academe, 
Plato's  retirement,  where  the  Attic  bird 
Trills  her  thick-warbled  notes  the  summer  long; 
There  flowVy  hill  Hymettus,  with  the  sound 
Of  bees'  industrious  murmur,  oft  invites 
To  studious  musing." 

We  may  complete  the  parallel  here,  and  as  there  it 
was  said,  "Ilissus  rolls  his  whisp'ring  stream,"  so  we 
have  our  beautiful  murmuring  stream  at  our  feet.  We 
who  are  acquainted  with  Oregon  would  not  exchange 
her  air,  her  verdure,  her  amber  streams,  her  great  moun- 
tains, for  anything  of  like  character  the  world  over; 
and  they  who  live  for  any  length  of  time  on  the  Pacific 
Coast  well  understand  why  that  is  so.  A  casual  visitor, 
of  course,  will  not  fully  see  it,  because  it  takes  some 
time  to  become  accustomed  to  what  you  see  and  find 
here.  (Laughter.)  No,  do  not  consider  that  a  joke, 
neither.  (More  laughter.)  For,  let  me  tell  you  all, 
there  never  was  a  person  who  lived  for  two  years  on 
the  Pacific  Coast  who  ever  found  it  tolerable  to  exist 


32 

on  the  other  slope  of  the  Rocky  mountains.  (Renewed 
laughter  and  applause.)  But  I  am  sure  I  have  said 
enough  in  praise  of  Oregon. 

And  now,  friends,  I  have  only  to  say  that  I  join  with 
the  president  of  this  college  and  with  all  here,  in  ex- 
pressing thanks  for  your  visit  to  Oregon  and  to  this 
place.  I  am  sure  that  upon  your  return  you  will  not 
speedily  forget  us;  and  I  am  sure,  furthermore,  that 
you  will  make  a  good  report  upon  what  you  have  seen 
and  experienced  here,  for  it  is  not  possible  for  you 
to  make  any  other.     (Applause.) 

President  McCLELLAND:  We  are  very  highly 
honored  this  afternoon  in  having  with  us  a  representa- 
tive of  the  Congregational  Union  of  England  and 
\\'ales,  and  the  president  of  a  board  of  trustees  of  Mans- 
field College,  England,  Rev.  Dr.  Mackennell,  who  has 
very  kindly  consented  to  give  us  a  word  of  greeting 
from  the  Fatherland  and  from  that  institution  which 
we  all  love.     (Applause.) 

Dr.  MACKENNELL:  Really  I  feel  so  much  be- 
wildered this  afternoon  that  I  shall  be  able  to  say  very 
little,  except  that  I  do  greet  you  very  heartily,  and  I 
am  quite  sure  that  I  am  warranted  in  saying  that  I 
represent  the  Congregational  churches  in  conveying 
this  greeting;  and,  I  am  bold  to  say,  as  one  who  knows 
intimately  Dr.  Fairbairn  and  those  associated  with 
Mansfield  College  in  spirit,  that  Mansfield  College 
greets  very  heartily  and  very  fraternally  this  institution 
on  the  Pacific  slope.  (Applause.)  I  am  bewildered 
because  I  seem  to  have  been  taking  a  little  look  into 
the  beginnings  of  things;  and  to  stand  at  the  beginning 
of  things,  to  the  native  of  an  old  and  effete  country 
(laughter),  is,  indeed,  rather  perplexing.     And  I  am 


33 

perplexed  all  the  more  because  the  absolutely  old  and 
the  absolutely  new  are  meeting  here  in  such  bewilder- 
ing propinquity.  Who  would  expect  to  see  the  electric 
light  among  those  glaciers  and  tumifli  of  stones  that 
mark  where  the  earth  is  taking  its  origin?  I  have  list- 
ened with  the  utmost  pleasure  to  the  statement  which 
was  read  by  Professor  Ferrin;  a  pleasure  which  has 
only  been  exceeded  by  the  delight  with  which  I  have 
heard  the  speech  of  Mr.  Harvey  Scott.  He  has  brought 
very  powerful  aid  to  a  theory  of  mine,  that  the  most 
provincial  place  I  know  anything  of  is  the  city  of  Lon- 
don (laughter  and  applause);  and,  let  me  add,  that  by 
the  city  of  London  I  mean  that  city  which  the  Oregon- 
ian  styles  "London,  England,'*  for  fear,  probably,  that 
it  might  be  confounded  with  London,  Ontario. 
(Laughter.)  But  there  is  a  good  deal  to  be  learned 
by  contact  with  the  fresh.  The  lessons  of  history  are 
very  valuable,  but  it  is  not  every  one  who  is  able 
rightly  to  apprehend  them.  The  man  who  goes  only 
to  his  history  for  his  knowledge  is  likely  to  make  a  very 
poor  use  of  the  knowledge  which  he  possesses.  I  won- 
der how  it  would  affect  most  of  you  here  to  be  told  that 
in  England  during  the  last  century  we  have  only  wit- 
nessed the  founding  of  two  universities,  the  University 
of  London  and  the  Victoria  University,  which  is  mainly 
made  use  of  by  the  North  of  England.  And  I  wonder 
what  you  will  think  when  I  tell  you  that  even  with  the 
addition  of  these  two  universities  our  total  number 
in  England  amounts  to  five. 

I  heartily  concur — very  heartily  concur — with  the 
general  statement  of  Mr.  Harvey  Scott  that  it  is  the 
duty  of  people  where  they  have  a  university  of  their 
own,  rather  to  seek  the  development  of  it  than  to  in- 
dulge their  ambition  and  work  for  degrees  in  a  place 


34 

of  very  much  higher  standard  of  learning.  Of  course, 
as  Captain  Cuttle  says,  "the  value  of  that  observation 
lies  in  the  application  of  it,"  and  I  am  not  about  to 
make  applications  either  to  the  advantage  or  to  the 
disadvantage  of  Yale  or  Harvard.  But  I  may  say  that 
in  connection  with  the  education  of  my  own  children  I 
have  chosen  rather  to  send  them  to  a  new  university 
lying  at  my  own  doors  than  to  send  them  to  one  of  the 
more  distinguished  and  more  honorable  universities 
lying  away.  And  for  this  reason:  that  in  the  education 
of  our  youth  we  have  not  only  to  remember  what  the 
institution  may  do  for  the  alumnus,  but  we  have  to  re- 
member and  ought  to  remember  what  the  graduate  does 
for  his  university.     (Great  applause.) 

I  do  not,  however,  intend  to  lecture  you,  even  though 
I  stand  upon  an  academic  platform.  It  is  the  vigor  and 
the  brightness  of  Mr.  Harvey  Scott  that  has  led 
me  along  this  line.  You  will  believe  me  when  I  say 
that  with  all  the  bewilderment  which  I  have  felt,  with 
all  the  profound  interest  with  which  I  have  listened  to 
these  statements,  the  deepest  feeling  in  my  heart  is  that 
of  admiration  for  the  grace  of  God  in  these  lives  that 
have  been  commemorated,  and  congratulation  to  you 
who  have  gathered  here  this  afternoon  to  listen  to  so 
beautiful  a  story,  and  the  very  earnest  desire  that 
Pacific  University  may,  before  it  is  as  old  as  Har/ard  or 
Yale,  have  acquired,  as  I  believe  it  will  have  acquired, 
an  influence  equal  to  that  which  either  of  those  institu- 
tions deservedly  possesses  today.     (Great  applause.) 

President  McCLELLAND:  The  ladies  have  pre- 
pared out  in  the  grove  just  back  of  the  building  a  col- 
lation which  will  be  served  in  a  little  time.  We  have 
some  very  rich  things  in  store  for  you  in  the  evening. 


35 


We  propose  to  give  you  a  recess  after  I  have  introduced 
one  other  speaker.  This  speaker,  and  the  one  who  will 
follow  after  the  collation,  need  very  Httje  introduction 
to  this  audience.  I  am  incHned  merely  to  tell  you  a 
story,  which  many  of  you  have  heard,  in  introduction 
of  these  men:  A  young  woman — perhaps  from  Ore- 
gon— visiting  Boston  some  time  ago,  and  trying  to 
decipher  one  of  those  milestones  which  mark  the  dis- 
tances around  about  that  ancient  city,  discovered  one, 
you  know,  that  looked  somewhat  like  a  tombstone,  and 
it  had  written  on  it  this  legend:  **i  M  from  Boston," 
and  she,  taking  it  for  an  epitaph,  read  it,  "Fm  from 
Boston,"  Passing  on  and  giving  expression  to  her 
feelings,  she  remarked  "Entirely  sufficient."  (Laugh- 
ter.) So  I  shall  simply  introduce  Mr.  Samuel  B. 
Capen  as  from  Boston,  and  that  is  all-sufficient.  (Ap- 
plause.) 


36 


THE    CHRISTIAN    COLLEGE    AS    A    FACTOR 
IN   OUR   CIVILIZATION. 


By  Samuel  B.  Capen. 

There  is  no  chapter  in  our  national  history  more 
glorious  than  that  which  has  had  lo  do  with  Christian 
education,  commencing  as  it  did  at  the  birth  of  the 
old  New  England  colonies.  The  school  equally  with 
the  town-meeiing  and  the  church  was  seen  to  be  essen- 
tial to  the  safety  and  well-being  of  the  new  common- 
wealth. 

Rut,  important  as  were  the  common  school  and  ele- 
mentary education,  our  fathers  were  not  to  be  satisfied 
with  these.  They  felt  especially  the  importance  of  an 
educated  ministry,  and  out  of  their  scanty  means  Harv- 
ard College  was  formed  in  1638,  when  as  yet  there  were 
but  twenty  or  thirty  houses  in  Boston.  In  the  early 
history  we  read:  "After  God  had  carried  us  safe  to 
New  England  and  we  had  builded  our  homes,  provided 
necessities  for  our  livelihood,  selected  convenient  places 
for  God's  worship,  and  settled  the  civil  government,  one 
of  the  next  things  we  longed  for  was  to  advance  learn- 
ing and  perpetuate  it  to  posterity,  dreading  to  have  an 
illiterate  ministry  to  our  churches  when  our  present 
ministry  shall  lie  in  the  dust."  Harvard  was  called  the 
"School  of  the  Prophets"  for  a  hundred  years.  Yale 
ec[ually  with  Harvard  was  formed  to  train  m^n  for 
the  ministry;  in  fact,  most  of  our  colleges  have  been 
established  by  Christian  people  with  this  purpose  in 
nniul,  the  training  of  Christian  men  for  service. 

The  colleges  started  by  Congregationalists  are  one 
of  the  great  glories  of  our  denomination,  and  it  is  fit- 


37 

ting  that  one  of  the  four  great  tablets  that  are  to  be 
affixed  to  our  New  Congregational  House  in  Boston 
should  signify  Education  by  representing  the  founding 
of  Harvard  College.  You  can  trace  the  tnarch  of  Con- 
gregationalism across  the  continent  by  the  institu- 
tions that  it  reared  at  the  bivouac-fires  where  it  halted 
for  a  time.  Harvard,  Yale,  Amherst,  Williams,  Dart- 
mouth, on  through  the  Middle  and  Western  states,  we 
have  erected  these  beacon-lights  of  civilization  till  we 
reach  the  Pacific  slope. 

Pacific  University,  where  we  meet  today,  is  such  a 
Christian  institution.  Its  foundations  were  laid  a  half- 
century  ago  by  the  men  who  came  to  Oregon  to  plant 
the  Christian  Church.  We  must  feel  that  they  were 
divinely  led  to  place  it  in  the  very  heart  of  a  region, 
which,  by  its  location  now  so  near  the  city  of  Portland 
and  surrounded  by  these  fertile  valleys,  will  in  a  few 
years  be  crowded  with  liomes,  and  as  full  of  activity  as 
the  older  states  in  the  East.  By  the  wise  provision 
of  the  original  deed  of  the  town  excluding  saloons  on 
the  penalty  of  the  forfeiture  of  the  land,  there  is  the 
best  possible  safeguard  for  a  moral  community  into 
which  our  youth  can  most  safely  enter.  And  what  a 
change  in  fifty  years!  When  President  Marsh  was  in- 
augurated he  spoke  from  a  platform  built  of  drygoods 
boxes,  and  the  seats  for  the  audience  were  equally 
primitive.     Today  this  magnificent  Memorial  building! 

Its  graduates  in  the  ministry  and  in  the  other  pro- 
fessions, as  well  as  in  business  Hfe,  have  greatly  helped 
to  shape  this  growing  state  for  righteousness.  Many 
who  have  not  been  able  to  complete  their  full  course  of 
study  have  been  inspired  by  what  they  have  learned,  and 
have  gone  out  to  become  teachers  in  the  public  schools 


38 

— thereby  scattering  the  fire  lighted  at  this  altar. 

I  would  like  to  give  three  reasons  why  I  believe  that 
the  Christian  college  is  growing,  from  generation  to 
generation,  more  important  as  a  factor  in  our  civiliza- 
tion : 

First — Because  of  the  change  that  has  taken  place 
in  the  character  of  our  population. 

We  are  no  longer  a  homogeneous  population,  as  we 
were  at  the  beginning,  and  this  gives  America  some 
problems  peculiar  to  itself.  To  illustrate:  A  canvass 
of  London  was  taken  some  years  ago,  and  it  was  found 
that  out  of  every  loo  people  63  were  born  in  the  city 
and  94  were  born  in  England  and  Wales.  Contrast  this 
with  our  cities.  The  population  of  New  York  for  in- 
stance is  80  per  cent,  foreign  or  children  of  foreigners  of 
the  first  generation;  Chicago  is  87  per  cent.  While 
this  proportion  would  not  hold  in  the  rural  districts,  yet 
we  do  know  that  it  holds  true  in  large  sections  of  our 
country.  Under  these  conditions  we  can  no  longer 
provide  in  our  schools  the  religious  teaching  which  was 
possible  in  the  early  days,  when  our  population  was 
more  homogeneous.  Even  the  Bible  has  been  ex- 
cluded from  use  in  the  schools  in  many  cities.  Teach- 
ers can  be  employed  who  are  atheists.  Whether  we 
like  it  or  not,  our  public  school  education  is  secular 
and  must  remain  such.  With  our  population  what  it 
is,  the  drift  in  this  direction  is  unmistakable. 

I  am  not  forgetting  the  religious  character  of  great 
numbers  of  teachers  in  our  public  schools,  and  five 
years'  experience  on  the  Boston  school  board  has  led 
me  to  lay  the  greatest  possible  emphasis  upon  character 
as  the  first  essential  for  every  teacher.  But  the  ap- 
pointment of  such  depends  upon  the  school  boards,  and 


39 

often  these  are  composed  in  part,  at  least,  of  those  who 
care  too  little  for  such  a  qualification.  This  most  sa- 
cred of  all  municipal  departments,  that  of  the  public 
school,  has  not  been  kept  free  from  thd  blighting  hand 
of  politics. 

I  know  it  is  argued  by  some  that  religious,  and  espe- 
cially denominational,  colleges  are  narrow  and  unneces- 
sary; that  we  ought  to  let  the  state  do  all  the  educat- 
ing, and  let  the  Christians  build  churches.  But  how 
then  shall  we  certainly  provide  a  sufficient  number  of 
Christian  teachers  who,  while  they  cannot  directly 
teach  religious  truth  in  our  public  schools,  can  do  it  in- 
din^ctly  through  their  life  and  character?  I  look  back 
upon  my  school  days  and  remember  well  the  moulding 
power  of  one  woman  and  one  man,  whose  Christian 
character  and  influence  could  not  be  restrained.  To 
give  even  this  indirect  religious  teaching  which  comes 
through  Christian  character,  we  must  have  religious 
teaithers  trained  in  the  Christian  college.  Recognizing 
as  we  do  the  value  of  the  Christian  teacher  in  the  secu- 
lar school,  we  know  how  they  are  shorn  of  much  of 
their  power  by  the  necessities  of  the  case.  Give,  how- 
ever, these  same  people  the  right  that  they  have  in  a 
Chiistian  institution  to  supplement  their  personality  by 
direct  teaching,  controverting  the  agnosticism  of  the 
day,  showing  what  religion  has  wrought  in  the  world, 
and  how  infinitely  almost  do  we  increase  their  power 
to  mould  life  and  character  aright. 

We  cannot  rightly  tax  the  people  to  teach  religious 
views  in  which  they  do  not  beHeve,  yet  if  we  are  to 
continue  as  a  Christian  nation,  we  must  not  only  con- 
tinue to  have  a  secular  education  supported  by  the  state, 
but  it  must  in  the  future,  as  in  the  past,  be  supplemented 


40 

by  the  Christian  academy  and  college  supported  by 
private  funds. 

Secondly — We  need  the  Christian  college  as  never 
before  to  furnish  trained  men  for  our  theological  sem- 
inaries. 

Education  has  become  widely  diffused  in  this  coun- 
try; common  people  are  reading  and  thinking,  and 
everywhere  there  is  an  intellectual  quickening.  The 
minister  is  no  longer  as  he  was  a  hundred  years  ago, 
perhaps  the  only  educated  man  in  the  community. 
He  now  may  have  many  in  his  congregation  who  have 
had  a  college  or  university  training.  We  must,  there- 
fore, have  educated  ministers  of  the  very  highest  order, 
if  the  church  is  to  hold  its  place  in  the  intelligent  think- 
ing of  our  day. 

I  am  not  decrying  the  great  value  in  the  world  of 
many  men  who  have  taken  what  are  called  ''short 
courses,"  but  the  churches  will  suffer  immeasurably  if 
we  are  to  depend  in  any  large  measure  upon  these. 
Principal  Fairbairn  has  expressed  the  opinion  that  ''We 
have  lowered  the  ministry  by  lowering  the  standard  of 
the  men  who  can  enter  it.  They  tell  us  that  the  age 
of  the  pulpit  is  past.  The  age  of  the  pulpit  is  only  com- 
ing, but  it  will  be  the  age  of  the  competent  pulpit." 
We  do  not  need  so  much  more  men  as  more  man  in 
the  pulpit. 

The  recent  measures  adopted  by  the  Suffolk  South 
Association,  of  Massachusetts,  the  Manhattan  Associa- 
tion, in  New  York,  the  New  Jersey  Association  and 
others,  in  favor  of  elevating  the  standard  of  the  minis- 
tr}-',  are  steps  in  the  right  direction. 

There  never  has  been  an  hour  in  the  history  of  this 


41 

country  when  there  was  such  a  demand  for  men  of  the 
highest  quaUfications  for  the  gospel  ministry.  Where 
shall  we  obtain  such  men  for  our  theological  seminaries 
unless  we  obtain  them  from  our  Christian  colleges? 
Statistics  show  that  our  state  colleges  and  universities 
furnish  comparatively  few  men  for  the  theological 
seminary.  Figures  obtained  a  few  years  ago  showed 
that  the  Christian  colleges  furnished  93  per  cent,  of 
these  theological  students,  and  there  is  no  reason  to 
beheve  there  has  been  any  material  change  since. 
Furthermore,  in  four  New  England  colleges  statistics 
were  gathered  some  time  since,  and  it  was  found  that 
from  one-fourth  to  one-fifth  of  those  who  entered  the 
ministry  were  converted  after  they  entered  college. 
The  Christian  atmosphere  of  the  college,  added  to  the 
early  training,  led  not  only  to  the  consecrated  life,  but 
also  to  the  noblest  use  of  a  consecrated  life,  the  ministry 
of  Jesus  Christ.  In  the  words  of  Dr.  Kirk:  "No  Chris- 
tian civilization  can  exist  permanently  without  a  thor- 
oughly educated  and  godly  ministry,  and  such  a  min- 
istry cannot  be  perpetuated  without  the  Christian  col- 
lege." 

We  have,  during  the  last  few  years,  been  passing 
through  a  period  of  great  intellectual  activity  with  re- 
gard to  the  Bible,  and  to  the  great  truths  of  religion. 
In  these  discussions  the  faith  of  many  has  become  un- 
settled; here,  therefore,  especially  is  the  need  for  the 
ablest  men  to  present  the  truth  in  harmony  with  the 
latest  scholarship  and  archaeological  research.  A  relig- 
ious paper  has  recently  put  this  truth  in  the  following 
forcible  words:  "A  wise,  strong,  thoroughly  intellec- 
tual ministry  was  never  more  needed  than  in  our  time, 
when  the  task  of  the  minister  is  to  lead  his  laity  through 
the  delicate  and  difficult,  yet  inevitable,  work  of  restat- 


42 

ing  the  church's  conception  of  the  Bible.  Theological 
education,  of  the  sanest  and  most  solid  sort,  is  a  matter 
of  life  and  death  to  the  church.  To  allow  'practical* 
problems,  however  pressing  and  however  stirring  they 
may  be,  to  withdraw  attention  from  this  fundamental 
need  is  short-sighted  and  unstatesmanlike." 

Third — We  need  the  Christian  college  to  properly 
train  leaders  in  civic  affairs. 

More  than  a  century  ago  George  III  is  reported 
to  have  said  that  there  would  have  been  no  American 
revolution  if  there  had  been  no  Harvard  College.  The 
graduates  of  that  college  were  the  leaders  in  the  Revcv- 
lution. 

Without  pausing  upon  the  earlier  days,  when  Sam 
Adams  and  the  men  of  his  generation  were  building  a 
free  commonwealth,  but  beginning  with  our  second 
great  struggle  to  preserve  the  integrity  of  the  Republic 
in  1861,  it  is  well  known  that  the  West  and  the  North- 
west were  held  in  the  Union  largely  by  the  influence 
of  the  Christian  colleges  and  the  churches  in  the  upper 
valley  of  the  Mississippi.  There  was  no  class  in  the 
community  as  patriotic  in  those  days  as  the  college 
graduates.  In  one  of  our  younger  colleges  out  of  750 
students  and  graduates  who  could  bear  arms  more  than 
400  went  to  the  front,  and  more  than  half  of  these  be- 
came officers.  So,  also,  in  1896,  it  was  the  educated 
men  that  saved  the  Nation  anew.  I  take  especial  pleas- 
ure in  alluding  to  this  here,  as  it  is  well  understood  that 
the  editor  of  one  of  your  Portland  papers  and  a  grad- 
uate from  this  university  saved  the  state  of  Oregon 
for  sound  money. 

The  safety  of  the  Republic  not  only  depends  upon 
the  intelligence  of  its  citizens,  but  it  is  vitally  import- 


43 

ant  that  the  basis  of  that  intelligence  shall  be  religious. 
Education  without  Christianity  has  left  out  its  chief 
factor,  and  the  source  of  its  greatest  power.  You  may 
take  a  block  of  marble  and  chisel  it  ever  so  skillfully 
into  some  matchless  human  form,  but  it  is  marble  still, 
cold  and  lifeless.  So  it  is  with  education  without  re- 
ligion; that  which  gives  it  life  and  power  and  meaning  is 
wanting.  We  need  more  men  like  Senator  Hoar  with 
great  religious  convictions  to  lead  the  people  in  civic 
matters.  While  men  think  and  act  for  themselves  per- 
haps as  never  before,  yet  it  is  equally  true  that  people 
are  more  and  more  being  guided  by  leaders  in  whom 
they  confide.  While  it  is  not  so  blind  a  leadership  as 
in  the  early  centuries  or  in  other  lands,  yet  in  its  intelli- 
gence it  is  just  as  real.  The  Christian  college  is  needed 
to  train  such  leaders  in  righteousness. 

The  Christian  college,  which  is  thus  developing  relig- 
ious leaders,  makes  its  support  a  matter  of  the  highest 
patriotism  to  the  whole  nation,  for  it  is  laying  the  foun- 
dations of  Christian  civilization.  In  the  new  states  it 
is  lawlessness  and  worldliness  against  order  and  purity 
and  the  Christian  home.  The  Christian  collegers  in- 
fluence is  often  the  deciding  factor  for  righteousness. 
It  is  like  a  fortress  in  a  time  of  war,  a  base  of  suppHes; 
the  country  round  about  is  safe  while  it  stands. 

Many  people  wander  to  the  West  who  have  made  a 
failure  in  the  East,  and  desire  to  make  a  new  start  in 
the  world.  In  these  new  regions  there  is  often  no 
church  and  no  Christ.  To  neglect  to  furnish  a  Chris- 
tian education  in  such  regions  is  full  of  peril  to  our 
country.  Neglect  Christian  education  for  one  or  two 
generations  and  the  Republic  is  doomed. 

Certainly  we  who  live  in  the  East  cannot  be  unmind- 


fill  of  the  importance  to  us  of  providing  generously 
for  education  in  the  newer  states.  Millions  have  been 
given  already,  and  the  same  spirit  of  generosity  ought 
to  continue.  It  is  one  Nation,  and  the  West  with  its 
teeming  millions  will  soon  have  the  control.  It  is  for 
our  interest,  therefore,  that  the  power  soon  to  be  ex- 
ercised be  a  Christian  power. 

And  this  leads  me  to  say  that  unless  the  Christian 
college  is  planted  in  the  newer  states,  there  will  be  no 
higher  education  for  the  children  of  these  communi- 
ties. The  traveling  expense  to  reach  the  colleges  al- 
ready established  in  the  older  states  is  so  great  as  to 
permit  but  a  comparatively  few  of  our  young  men 
and  women  to  have  the  higher  education  they  crave. 
In  a  college  in  one  of  our  Western  states  it  was  found 
by  correspondence  recently  that  seven-eighths  of  its 
students  would  never  have  taken  a  course  of  study  if 
it  had  not  been  for  the  local  college.  Furthermore,  its 
presence  furnishes  an  inspiration  to  the  community 
which  cannot  come  from  an  institution  a  thousand  miles 
away. 

If  you  want  to  sustain  missions,  then  sustain  the 
Christian  colleges  of  the  newer  states,  for  they  furnish 
the  missionaries.  From  what  other  source  are  the  men 
to  be  obtained  who  will  most  intelligently  carry  the 
gospel  into  the  hundreds  of  places  west  of  the  Mis- 
souri river  where  no  gospel  is  preached?  If  you  want 
Christian  teachers,  then  support  the  Christian  colleges, 
for  they  must  furnish  the  teachers  for  the  new  states. 
It  has  been  well  said,  'To  teach  the  teachers  is  more 
than  to  write  the  songs  or  enact  the  laws  of  a  nation." 

With  all  that  is  needed  to  be  done  in  these  new 
states  they  must  still  ask  and  they  still  deserve  help 


45 

from  the  older  communities.  We  are  our  brothers' 
keepers.  We  in  the  East  have  come  into  a  rich  inheri- 
tance; it  is  the  Christ  spirit  that  we  freely  give  as  we 
have  freely  received. 

With  a  few  exceptions,  and  as  a  general  statement, 
there  are  not  as  yet  too  many  colleges  established:  but 
let  us  see  to  it  that  we  strengthen  and  broaden  those 
we  have  before  we  add  more. 

I  believe  in  the  value  of  the  smaller  country  college. 
I  know  the  argument  of  the  other  side,  of  the  enthu- 
siasm which  comes  with  great  numbers,  etc.  But  in 
the  university  the  individual  is  too  apt  to  be  lost  in 
the  multitude.  He  knows  but  a  few  of  his  classmates, 
he  does  not  meet  his  instructors  personally.  It  is 
often  in  the  country  colleges  where  you  find  the  true 
college  spirit  and  the  noblest  college  life.  Are  not  Dart- 
mouth, Amherst,  Williams  and  OberHn  country  col- 
leges? 

Said  an  editor  of  brilliant  reputation  in  New  York 
city,  a  graduate  of  a  smaller  Christian  college:  "More 
and  more  I  rejoice  that  I  learned  so  much  from  a 
teacher  who  was  a  comrade,  instead  of  being  left  to 
tutors  in  a  big  class.  I  have  never  since  I  came  here 
regretted  my  education,  when  personal  friendship  with 
my  teachers  was  worth  infinitely  more  than  all  the  big 
buildings  in  all  the  college  yards  of  the  world." 

Note  also  that  in  these  Christian  colleges  almost 
every  graduate  is  a  pronounced  Christian  man.  Wh'le 
the  intellectual  standards  are  being  constantly  lifted,  so 
that  they  will  rank,  many  of  them,  as  the  peers  of  the 
older  institutions  of  the  East,  yet  there  is  an  all-per- 
vading atmosphere  which  quickens  men  to  the  loftiest 
Christian  purpose  and  the  noblest  achievement. 


46 

I  glory  in  the  men  who  have  done  this  work. '  With 
courage  undaunted,  with  glorious  self-sacrifice,  they 
have  fought  against  odds  and  conquered.  I  cannot 
call  the  roll,  but  God  has  them  on  His,  and  they  will 
have  places  near  the  throne.  But  here  on  this  spot 
we  may  be  permitted  without  intending  any  discrimina- 
tion to  speak  of  Rev.  Dr.  G.  H.  Atkinson,  Rev.  Harvey 
Clarke,  President  Marsh,  and  also  of  Marcus  Whitman 
and  Rev.  Dr.  Gushing  Eells,  of  your  neighboring  Whit- 
man Gollege. 

These  colleges  have  moulded  states.  I  have  always 
been  an  enthusiast  for  Christian  colleges;  I  dislike  the 
sneering  remark  sometimes  made  of  "fresh-water  col- 
leges." I  almost  envy  the  man  who  can  help  build 
and  endow  some  institution,  that  will  be  Christian  in 
its  trustees  and  its  faculty,  every  throb  and  heartbeat 
pulsating  for  Christ  and  humanity.  I  almost  envy  the 
man  whom  God  sets  apart  for  the  holy  service  of 
teaching  in  these  institutions.  In  the  words  of  John 
Wesley:  "Is  it  not  a  more  extensive  benefit  to  sweeten 
the  fountain  than  to  purify  a  particular  stream?" 

Who  can  tell  the  power  or  influence  of  a  single  con- 
secrated life!  When  the  secret  things  of  this  world  are 
written  it  will  be  found  that  many  men  unknown  to 
fame  have  been  used  by  God  to  change  the  lives  of 
thousands. 

Only  a  thought,  but  the  work  it  wrought 
Could  never  by  pen  or  tongue  be  taught; 
For  it  ran  through  a  life  like  a  thread  of  gold, 
And  the  life  bore  fruit  a  hundred-fold. 

Go  on,  then,  with  greater  courage  in  the  training  of 
men  here,  who,  touched  by  your  word  and  inspired  by 
your  lives,  are  to  be  leaders  in  the  church,  and  who  will 


47 

continue  to  mould  this  commonwealth  for  civic  right- 
eousness and  for  the  glory  of  God. 

President  McCLELLAND  here  r^d  the  following 

telegrams: 

"Brighton,  Mass. 

"Five  hundred  dollars  pledged  for  Brighton  Chapel. 
Congratulations  and  best  wishes.       A.  A.  BERLE." 

"All  Tabor  rejoices  with  you.    Philippians,  i  :2-6. 
"R.  S.  HUGHES, 

"President  Tabor  College. 
"JEROME  C.  TIPPLE, 
"Mayor  of  the  Town." 

The  President  stated  that  the  purpose  of  the  pledge 
mentioned  is  to  put  permanent  seats  in  this  room 
which  we  are  now  occupying,  something  which  we  need 
very  much,  and  I  am  very  grateful  to  receive  this  tele- 
gram from  Dr.  Berle  and  his  church.  He  also  read  the 
verses  referred  to  in  the  second  telegram. 

And  thereupon,  after  the  singing  of  a  college  song 
written  by  one  of  the  students,  a  recess  was  taken  until 
7  o'clock. 


EVENING    SESSION. 


President  McCLELLAND:  We  will  begin  where 
we  left  off,  with  the  man  from  Boston;  and  here  is  Dr. 
Barton,  who  will  speak  on  behalf  of  the  Educational 
Society  and  Eastern  Congregationalism  generally. 

Dr.  BARTON:  Ladies  and  Gentlemen:  I  took  my 
half  of  that  introduction  which  included  Mr.  Capen.  I 
am  reminded  of  the  young  lady  from  Portland  who  met 
the  young  lady  from  Boston,  and  who  said:     "I  have 


48 

wanted  all  my  life  to  visit  Boston;  I  have  heard  so  much 
about  it.  I  think  that  Boston  must  be  very  like 
Heaven."  And  the  Boston  girl  replied:  "Well,  it  used 
to  be,  but  Boston  has  improved  very  much  in  the  last 
few  years."     (Laughter.) 

THE    VALUE    OF    A    CHRISTIAN    COLLEGE. 

Address  of  William  E.  Barton,  D.  D.,  representing  the 

Congregational  Education  Society. 

One  of  the  most  interesting  phenomena  in  the  social 
development  of  America  is,  and  has  been,  the  interest 
of  its  people  in  popular  and  higher  education.  The 
schoolmaster  follows  hard  upon  the  track  of  the  earliest 
pioneers.  Amid  all  the  hai;dship  and  inevitable  priva- 
tion incident  to  life  in  a  new  community,  our  people 
voluntarily  and  with  great  sacrifice  have  taken  upon 
themselves  the  added  burden  involved  in  the  rearing  of 
institutions  of  learning. 

The  great  Puritan  migration  of  New  England  oc- 
curred in  1630.  Then  Boston  was  founded,  and  the 
incoming  population  rose  from  a  trickling  stream  to  a 
considerable  tide.  In  only  five  years  the  Latin  School 
was  founded  and  continues  to  this  day.  In  another 
year  Harvard  College  was  founded,  professedly  for  the 
purpose  of  maintaining  an  educated  ministry.  The 
pathetically  small  beginnings  of  these  and  other  great 
instiiutions  which  now  exist  in  our  country  and  the 
annals  of  their  growth  and  progress  would  read  to  us 
like  romance  had  they  not  been  repeated  scores  of  times 
in  newer  and  smaller  educational  institutions  in  our 
country.  Beside  these  institutions  for  higher  learning 
we  have  scores  of  academies  and  preparatory  schools 
supported  by  private  generosity;  and  in  addition  to 
these  every  state  makes  the  most  generous  provision 


49 

for  the  maintenance  of  common  schools  with  institu- 
tions for  technical  education  of  higher  grade. 

Truly,  so  great  expenditures  of  time  and  thought 
and  effort  on  the  part  of  the  great  body  of  the  people 
of  this  country  indicate  on  their  part  a  strong  beUef  in 
the  value  of  popular  and  higher  education.  Indeed, 
it  is  not  too  much  to  say  that  sometimes  we  have  as- 
cribed to  it  too  high  a  value,  and  have  assumed  that 
mere  knowledge  is  a  panacea  for  all  political  and  social 
ills.  There  are  some  occupations  for  which  some  kinds 
of  education  may  prove  a  positive  disadvantage,  and 
yet,  upon  the  whole,  the  faith  of  the  people  of  this  coun- 
try in  popular  education  has  not  been  misplaced.  It 
is  not  necessary  that  I  should  define  to  you  who  have 
established  and  maintained  for  fifty  years  the  institution 
which  adorns  this  town  and  illuminates  this  surrounding 
region  the  advantages  of  such  an  institution  of  learn- 
ing, yet  sometimes  to  those  who  bear  the  burdens  of  an 
institution  of  this  kind  the  sacrifices  appear  so  exces- 
sive as  to  well-nigh  discourage  the  effort  requisite  for 
its  maintenance.  Let  me  say  a  few  words  then  about 
the  value  to  a  community  of  a  Christian  college.  First, 
it  has  a  commercial  value,  and  while  this  is  a  considera- 
tion that,  perhaps,  ought  hardly  to  be  mentioned,  and 
is  one  upon  which  we  are  inclined  sometimes  to  place 
undue  emphasis,  it  is  worth  speaking  of  in  passing.  No 
investment  of  a  like  amount  of  money  in  hotels,  in 
manufacturing  establishments,  or  in  other  commercial 
enterprises  can  upon  the  whole  produce  so  marked  an 
effect  in  appreciation  of  property  in  a  vicinage.  This 
has  been  so  well  understood  by  college  builders  that  I 
hasten  on,  counting  it  somewhat  dangerous  ground. 

Secondly,  a  Christian  college  gives  a  wonderful  in- 
tellectual stimulus  to  the  town  and  surrounding  re- 


50 

gion.  The  work  of  a  college  does  not  consist  simply 
in  teaching  certain  facts  to  a  select  company  of  young 
people;  its  larger  influence  is  upon  the  whole  commu- 
nity. It  gives  a  certain  temper  to  the  town,  a  certain 
intellectual  bent  to  the  body  of  the  people  about  it; 
there  come  to  be  students  or  teachers  in  almost  every 
house;  the  best  of  the  town  relates  itself  to  the  admin- 
istration of  the  school.  A  college  is  not  only  a  con- 
sumer as  well  as  producer,  requiring  the  purchase  of 
breadstuffs,  food  and  clothing  in  considerable  quantities, 
but  it  brings  into  the  town  as  permanent  residents  sev- 
eral families  of  cultured  people  who  become  its  teach- 
ers and  professors.  It  tends  to  build  up  a  public 
library,  of  size  proportionate  to  the  age  and  magnitude 
of  the  college,  and  it  stimulates  the  accumulation  of 
private  libraries  quite  beyond  the  average  size  of  libra- 
ries in  towns  where  no  college  exists. 

It  keeps  the  community  in  touch  with  the  world  of 
letters;  it  lays  new  thought  under  constant  tribute;  it 
brings  from  time  to  time  men  of  literary  reputation 
from  their  distant  homes  to  address  the  student  and 
towns-people  as  well.  It  is  a  reservoir,  a  fountain  of 
good  things  which  are  not,  or  need  not  be,  confined  to 
the  body  of  its  graduates.  It  is  one  of  the  glories  of 
the  typical  American  college  that  it  presents  no  contrast 
of  "town  and  gown,"  rather  the  colony  and  college  for- 
cibly impress  themselves  upon  the  world  outside  as  a 
unit. 

Thirdly,  the  college  is  a  great  moral  force  in  a  com- 
munity. People  will  not  send  their  sons  and  daughters 
away  to  school  except  they  have  assurance  that  they 
will  be  surrounded  by  good  influences  in  the  community 
as  well  as  in  the  classroom.     Hence,  it  comes  to  pass 


51 

that  the  liquor  traffic  is  not  commonly  legalized  in  our 
college  towns.  The  safeguards  which  are  thrown  about 
the  young  people  away  from  home  obtaining  their  edu- 
cation in  this  community  come  thus  to  be  enjoyed  also 
by  the  young  people  of  the  town.  Many  a  man  who 
might  otherwise  be  tempted  to  vote  for  licensing  the 
saloon  for  the  sake  of  revenue  to  be  obtained  from  it 
feels  in  the  presence  of  the  college  a  restraining  neces- 
sity, and  in  thus  voting  for  the  sake  of  the  children  of 
other  men  who  for  the  time  being  are,  as  it  were,  under 
his  protection,  he  profects  his  own  children  who  may, 
or  may  not,  be  students  in  the  college,  and  the  moral 
tone  of  the  community  is  taken  from  that  of  the  col- 
lege which  it  maintains. 

Thus  far  I  have  spoken  as  though  the  young  people 
composing  the  body  of  undergraduates  were  chiefly 
those  from  a  distance,  and  as  though  the  people  of  the 
community  shared  only  incidentally  in  the  benefits  of 
the  college,  and  all  that  I  have  said  would,  I  think,  be 
true,  if  these  represented  the  facts.  As  a  matter  of 
experience,  however,  it  is  not  so.  The  great  body  of 
the  students  in  our  colleges  come  from  a  radius  of  a 
few  miles  about.  This  is  true  to  a  surprising  extent 
even  of  our  great  universities  and  of  communities  with 
well-developed  facilities  for  travel.  The  reason  for  it 
is  two-fold.  First,  the  location  of  a  college  in  a  given 
community  gives  to  it,  as  the  years  go  by,  an  increas- 
ing number  of  families  who  take  up  their  homes  in  a 
college  town  for  the  sake  of  educating  their  children; 
secondly,  the  presence  of  the  college  within  a  distance 
of  a  few  miles  comes  to  interest  succeeding  generations 
of  young  people  as  a  natural  gateway  into  a  life  of 
influence  and  usefulness.     This  fact  is  less  appreciated 


52 

in  the  days  when  a  country  is  new  and  the  endeavors  of 
a  people  must  largely  be  devoted  to  securing  a  liveli- 
hood by  the  tilling  of  the  soil,  but  as  years  go  by  it  is 
found  to  be  increasingly  true  that  the  young  people 
of  a  college  town  and  the  towns  close  about  look  to  the 
college  as  affording  a  natural  entrance  into  the  world. 

Since  the  establishment  of  the  government  of  the 
United  States,  only  i  per  cent,  of  our  people  have  been 
college  graduates,  but  58  per  cent,  of  all  the  important 
positions  of  the  government  have  been  filled  by  edu- 
cated men.  It  thus  appears  that  the  man  who  sacrifices 
for  the  establishment  and  maintenance  of  a  college  in 
his  town  is  making  for  his  community  and,  perhaps,  for 
his  children,  one  of  the  richest  possible  investments  for 
coming  years.  I  think  it  is  important  that  we  should 
consider  these  facts,  because  it  is  hardly  too  much 
to  say  that  the  Christian  college  is  on  trial  for  its  life. 
Below  it  are  the  common  schools  and  high  schools,  and 
above  it  are  the  state  universities,  and  it  sometimes 
seems  as  though  between  the  two  the  Christian  college 
might  come  to  serve  no  useful  function. 

But  thoughtful  men,  students  of  history  and  social 
problems,  see  in  the  Christian  college  the  hope  of  the 
country.  The  influences  which  are  the  most  radiant 
in  the  vicinity  radiate  over  a  wider  and  wider  area  as 
the  years  go  by.  The  influence  of  the  small  college  is 
never  to  be  measured  solely  by  the  number  of  its 
alumni;  upon  it  depends  the  efficiency  of  the  public 
school,  the  pulpit,  all  the  learned  professions  and  the 
general  intelligence  of  the  community. 

I  bring  you,  then,  the  greeting  of  the  Educational 
Society,  which,  nearly  a  half  century  ago,  gave  to  you 


53 

that  precious  $600,  with  our  hearty  congratulations  on 
your  fifty  years.  Your  labors  have  been  well  expended. 
You  have  builded  well  your  foundation.  With  joy  we 
greet  with  you  the  dawning  century.  Yours  are  the 
ages  to  come  in  the  generations  of  young  life  to  go  forth 
from  these  walls  to  bless  and  enrich  the  world. 

President  McCLELLAND:  We  have  a  represen- 
tative with  us  today  of  an  institution  in  the  East 
which,  if  any  institution  may  be  called  the  mother  of 
this  college,  was  its  mother,  Vermont  University.  And 
I  have  asked  Dr.  Byington  to  say  a  word  as  a  graduate 
of  that  institution.     (Applause.) 

Dr.  EZRA  HOYT  BYINGTON:  Mr.  President: 
I  am  very  glad  to  bring  the  greetings  of  the  old  Uni- 
versity of  Vermont  to  this  new  university  of  the  Pacific 
Coast.  It  is  very  interesting  to  trace  the  connection 
of  one  institution  of  learning  with  another.  One  who 
visits  old  Cambridge,  the  old  University  in  England, 
will  be  taken  to  one  of  the  colleges  there  and  shown 
in  the  college  hall  a  full-length  portrait  of  John  Har- 
vard, the  founder  of  Harvard  College;  and  one  can  see 
that  they  are  very  proud  of  their  daughter  on  these 
Western  shores.  And  Harvard  College  is  the  mother, 
evidently,  of  Bowdoin,  and  Yale  College  is  the  mother 
of  Dartmouth  College;  and  so  it  is  that  one  college 
has  been  connected  with  another  all  along  in  the  history 
of  the  colleges  of  this  country.  The  University  of  Ver- 
mont is  the  daughter  of  Dartmouth  College,  and  has 
borrowed  from  it  her  best  instructions.  It  is  very 
wonderful  that  the  University  of  Vermont  should  have 
had  so  much  to  do  with  founding  this  institution  fifty 
years  ago,  and  since  then;  an  institution  which  is  doing 
so  much  in  this  part  of  our  country.     As   has  been 


54 


said,  President  Marsh,  who  was  the  first  president,  was 
the  son  of  that  great,  that  wonderful  man,  whose  too 
early  death  was  the  greatest  loss,  perhaps,  that  philos- 
ophy in  this  country  has  suffered — President  James 
Marsh.  And  how  much  Dr.  Sidney  Marsh  did  for 
the  Oregon  University  cannot  be  told.  And  when 
he  had  it  developed  to  a  certain  degree — Pacific  Uni- 
versity— his  younger  brother  joined  him — Professor 
Marsh — who,  for  thirty  years,  I  am  told,  has  done  such 
grand  work  in  connection  with  Pacific  University. 
(Applause.)  His  name  has  not  been  mentioned  this 
afternoon;  I  presume  the  reason  is  his  modesty;  very 
likely  he  has  placed  an  injunction  upon  some  of  his 
friends  here,  but  I  am  under  no  such  injunction.  (Great 
applause.)  And  we  had  before  us  in  the  beginning 
of  these  exercises  Professor  Ferrin,  also  a  graduate  of 
the  University  of  Vermont,  who  has  been  here  some 
twenty  years,  and  who  has  done  such  excellent,  scholarly 
work  here,  and  who  bids  fair,  I  am  sure  you  will  agree 
with  me  in  saying,  to  do  excellent,  scholarly  work  here 
for  years  to  come.  So  it  is  that  the  University  of 
Vermont,  so  far  away  in  that  "provincial"  part  of  our 
country  (laughter),  has  been  sending  its  choicest  sons 
and  its  choicest  gifts — for  a  good  deal  of  the  money 
that  has  been  reported  here  this  afternoon  came  from 
its  alumni — to  this  institution. 

I  will  only  say  one  other  thing,  and  that  is  in  regard 
to  this  matter  of  the  provincialism  of  the  West,  or  the 
provincialism  of  the  East.  I  am  not  sure  that  we  ought 
to  say  very  much  about  that.  Neither  the  West  nor 
the  East  stands  alone.  We  are  bound  together  by  very 
close  ties,  even  the  ties  of  mutual  help  and  contribu- 
tions, and  we  give  in  each  part  of  the  country  not  only 


our  choicest  sons,  but  our  richest  treasures  for  the  ben- 
efit of  the  other  part  of  the  country.  I  am  sure  that  the 
services  that  have  been  rendered  by  .one  part  of  the 
United  States  to  the  people  of  other  parts  of  the  United 
States  furnish  one  of  the  very  strongest  bonds  that 
hold  together  our  united  country. 

Gentlemen,  I  bring  you  the  hearty  greetings  of  the 
alumni  of  the  University  of  Vermont,  and  I  shall  be 
glad  when  I  return  to  New  England  and  meet  my  col- 
lege friends  to  assure  them  that  they  have  a  warm 
place  in  your  regard  and  in  your  favor.     (Applause.) 

President  McCLELLAND:  Some  two  or  three 
years  ago  the  college  presidents  of  the  Pacific  Coast  of 
the  Pilgrim  faith  met  as  the  guests  of  the  Pacific  Theo- 
logical Seminary,  for  the  purpose  of  forming  an  organi- 
zation which  would  have  for  its  object  the  dissuading  of 
men  who  were  ambitious  to  form  additional  colleges 
from  that  act,  and  for  encouraging  the  establishment  of 
academies  as  feeders  to  the  colleges  which  we  now  have. 
Dr.  McLean  represents  in  himself  better  than  any  other 
man  that  educational  alliance,  and  he  is  here  to  bring 
a  word  of  greeting  from  the  colleges  connected  with 
it.     (Applause.) 

Dr.  McLean  :  I  wish  I  had  time  to  introduce  to 
these  wise  men  from  the  East  our  entire  sisterhood  of 
Pacific  Congregational  institutions.  One  of  them,  I 
presume,  will  speak  for  itself  by  and  by  in  the  person 
of  its  president,  Penrose.  I  can  only  say  that  what 
you  have  found  here  today  as  regards  this  institution 
you  will  find  every  time  you  come  here.  This  is  not 
an  incidental  sort  of  thing,  this  gathering  you  have 
had,  in  almost  any  of  its  accessories.     I  was  up  here,  I 


56 


think,  about  two  years  ago,  and  this  room  was  crowded 
to  repletion,  just  as  it  has  been  today;  the  same  balmy 
air,  the  same  magnificent  outlook,  only  perhaps  it  was 
still  more  magnificent  than  it  is  today,  for  it  was  Octo- 
ber, and  these  trees,  now  arrayed  in  living  green,  had 
been  touched  with  the  golden  hue;  old  Mount  Hood 
was  interested  in  the  proceedings,  just  as  he  is  today. 
I  took  occasion  to  say,  in  some  feeble  remarks  I  made 
from  this  platform,  that  it  seemed  to  me  the  great 
mountain  was  standing  up  on  tip-toe,  and  I  did  not 
wonder  because  of  his  interest  to  know  what  was  going 
on  under  these  oaks.     (Applause.)     And  the  gUmpses 
he  got  only  interested  him  the  more,  for  you  should  be 
here,  my  friends,  when  the  college  is  in  full  blast.     You 
have  seen  some  of  the  boys  and  girls;  you  should  see 
them  all,  as  I  saw  them  then.     I  have  to  say  that  if  I 
was  a  hoary-headed  old  mountain  fixed  away  yonder  in 
the  horizon,  and  there  was  such  a  bevy  of  girls  discern- 
ible from  my  station,  running  about  under  these  trees, 
I,  too,  would  be  up  on  my  tip-toes.     (Great  applause.) 
And  now,  I  come  back  and  find  that  these  girls  are  just 
as  good  as  they  looked  to  be  then,  for  they  have  been 
comforting  us  with  cherries,  and  staying  us  with  flagons 
of  water;   and  I  am  sure  I  got  an  extra  smile  or  two, 
and  an  extra  fine  piece  of  cake  or  two,  because  of  that 
visit  I  made  here  two  years  ago.     I  wish  you  could  visit 
all. these  institutions:    you  would  find  the  same  thing 
everywhere. 

Salt  Lake  is  represented  here  today  in  the  person  of 
its  President  Hunt.  I  presume  there  will  not  be  time 
to  hear  from  that  sister.  You  will  be  glad  to  know  that 
the  great  Chicago  challenger  has  just  put  down  $50,000 
for  that  college  to  cover.     When  that  is  done  it  will 


57 

have  a  day  of  rejoicing  such  as  we  are  having-  here  to- 
day. 

I  will  speak  a  word  for  Pomona,  because  I  not  only 
represent  it  in  this  educational  aUiance,  but  am  one  of 
its  trustees.  You  know  its  good  fortune;  it  has  finished 
its  endowment;  it  has  raised  the  money  to  pay  a  large 
debt  that  has  been  troubling  it,  and  the  plans  are  being 
drawn  today  in  the  city  of  Los  Angeles  for  her  new 
building  of  science  that  Dr.  Pearsons  promised.  This 
is  the  youngest  of  our  sisterhood  upon  the  coast;  it  is 
only  ten  years  old.  I  am  sorry  for  what  I  have  to  say 
now,  but  we  cannot  help  things  down  in  California 
because  of  our  superior  climate  and  soil;  they  will  grow. 
Pomona  is  only  ten  years  old,  but  she  is  bigger  than 
either  of  her  sisters;  I  guess  she  is  bigger  than  both  of 
them  together;  it  is  the  climate  that  did  it;'  we  didn't 
want  to  outgrow  them  so;  it's  the  climate  and  the  soil; 
she  had  to  do  so.  If  you  should  happen  around  when 
she  is  fifty  years  old,  I  don't  know  what  you  would  see 
down  there. 

Now,  I  want  to  introduce  to  you  one  sister  that  you 
have,  perhaps,  never  recognized  as  belonging  to  the 
Pacific  group,  and  that  is  away  in  Hawaii.  (Great  ap- 
plause.) The  last,  and  perhaps  by  no  means  the  least, 
important  member  of  this  sisterhood  of  institutions 
upon  the  Pacific  Coast.  I  wish  there  were  time  to  say 
just  a  word  about  the  significance  of  these  institutions, 
in  view  of  the  great  events  that  are  beginning  to  take 
place;  that  which  our  far-sighted  American  statesmen 
years  ago  prophesied  with  respect  to  the  present  cen- 
tury is  pressing  on  to  its  fulfillment.  There  are  rising 
on  that  far  western  horizon,  in  the  shape  of  thunder- 
heads  as  yet,  most  portentous  things,  that  may  have 


58 

in  them,  perhaps,  something  of  the  besom  of  destruc- 
tion, and  something  of  terror,  and  something  to  disturb 
us;  but  that  have  in  their  bosoms,  let  us  believe,  much 
of  that  balm  of  Heaven  that  follows  the  thunder  and 
the  lightning.  The  greater  things  of  Greater  America 
lie  to  the  v^estward  of  this  fair  sisterhood  of  institu- 
tions here,  entering,  dear  friends,  just  now  upon  their 
second  career  of  enjoyment  in  a  most  opportune  time. 
I  believe  there  is  a  Providence  in  the  gathering  of  this 
Council  here  in  Portland  today.  I  do  not  know  that 
we  have  had  due  sense  of  it,  the  coincidence  of  the  com- 
ing of  this  body  of  earnest-minded  people  to  stand  upon 
the  farthest  verge  of  the  American  continent,  and  to 
get  a  nearer  sense  of  what  lies  over  here  in  the  future. 
I  wish  I  was  a  college  boy  in  Forest  Grove,  or  Whit- 
man, or  Pomona,  or  almost  anywhere  else  in  America. 
I  would  like  to  go  through  the  next  fifty  years  of  Amer- 
ican history.  And,  my  friends,  this  institution,  and  in- 
stitutions like  this,  is  the  guarantee  for  an  American 
citizenship  that  is  going  to  hold  the  Ship  of  State 
unerringly  in  her  voyage  through  all  the  dangers  and 
perils  and  glories  of  these  coming  decades.  (Great 
applause.)  Do  not  forget  these  institutions;  forget 
what  we  have  said — what  has  been  lately  said  about 
provincialism.  You  understand  that  we  must  have  our 
little  joke.  The  gravities  of  the  situation  are  so  great 
upon  our  coast  that  if  we  did  not  indulge  sometimes 
in  pleasantries  we  should  die.  But  do  not  forget  us — 
pray  for  these  churches,  pray  for  these  institutions, 
strengthen  the  hands  of  these  Christians;  send  us  your 
strongest  ministers;  send  us  your  ablest  teachers,  give 
us  your  richest  gifts;  lift  to  Heaven  for  us  your  most 
fervent  prayers!    (Applause.) 

President  McCLELLAND:     We  will  hear  a  word 


59 

from  Dr.  Bradford.  I  need  not  introduce  Dr.  Bradford 
to  this  audience,  or  any  audience  of  Congregationalists 
the  wide  world  over.    (Applause.) 

Dr.  BRADFORD:  I  feel  as  if  it  were  an  intrusion, 
Mr.  President  and  friends,  for  me  to  take  a  moment 
of  your  time.  This  occasion  belongs  so  much  to  this 
coast,  and  yet,  somehow  or  other,  I  have  the  feeling 
that  I  belong  here;  as  I  have  come  back  after  all  these 
years  I  have  felt  the  thrills  of  enthusiasm  which  I  felt 
years  and  years  ago.  You  remember  the  story  of  the 
Httle  girl  in  the  street  car,  who  was  asked  by  the  con- 
ductor who  came  to  collect  the  fares:  "My  little  girl, 
how  old  are  you?"  and  who  looked  up  innocently  and 
said:  "Mr.  Conductor,  if  you  please,  I  will  pay  full  fare 
and  keep  statistics  to  myself."  (Laughter.)  I  inad- 
vertently mentioned  the  other  evening  how  long  ago 
it  was  since  I  had  been  on  this  coast,  and  I  do  not  know 
that  I  can  keep  it  to  myself  any  longer;  but  I  remem- 
ber one  beautiful  day — two  or  three  days — twenty-four 
years  ago  about  now,  driving  out  from  Portland,  and  I 
drove  all  through  this  region.  This  building  was  not 
erected;  only  one  or  two  buildings  were  on  this  campus, 
and  as  I  have  been  here  today  I  have  thought  that  the 
progress  of  those  years  was  quite  as  great  here  as  at 
almost  any  institution  with  which  I  am  acquainted.  We 
are  in  the  habit  of  measuring  progress  by  the  size  of 
buildings.  We  ought  rather  to  measure  progress  by 
what  is  put  into  living  men  and  women.  If  we  measure 
in  that  way,  I  arn  sure  the  progress  at  this  institution 
has  been  quite  as  great  as  at  any  institution  with  which 
I  am  acquainted.  I  can  say  nothing  concerning  the 
coast,  as  others  have  been  able  to  say.  I  am  a  pro- 
vincial of  the  provincialists;  I  must  confess  that.    I  was 


60 

on  a  train  leaving  Boston  once,  and  the  newsboy  came 
through   the   train  crying   out  in   the   usual  newsboy 
fashion,   "Appleton's    Railway  Guide    for  the  United 
States  and  Canada,"  and  a  good-natured  man  called  the 
boy  back  and  said:     ''See  here,  boy,  have  you  one  for 
New  Jersey?"  and  the  boy  looked  through  his  whole  list 
— and  a  Boston  boy,  at  that — and  innocently  and  ear- 
nestly replied  that  he  did  not  have  one.   (Laughter.)  So 
that  a  man  who  comes  from  New  Jersey  could  not  be 
supposed  to  know  very  much  concerning  the  Pacific 
Coast  if  he  had  not  been  here;   and  certainly  not  very 
much  concerning  education  or  the  institutions  of  learn- 
ing.    But  even  we  in  New  Jersey  have  learned  a  few 
things,  and  I  may  just  mention  them,  and  will  do  no  more 
than  mention  them.    I  think  we  have  learned  that  there 
are  three  great  problems  pressing  upon  the  American 
people  in  this  country,  and  we  do  not  need  to  turn  our 
eyes  toward  the  sunset  to  see  them.    We  have  learned 
that  there  are  great  political  questions  which  can  be 
settled  only  by  educated  men.     We  have  learned  that 
there  is  one  thing  that  is  needed  more  than  almost  any- 
thing else  in  this  country  of  ours,  and  that  is  a  thorough 
and  earnest  study  of  history.    And  we  have  come  to  the 
conclusion  that  these  questions  can  be  settled  only  by 
those  who  are  educated.     We  have  learned  that  there 
are  social  problems,  and  those  problems  can  be  solved 
only  by  those  who  are  educated.    We  have  learned  that 
there  are  great  religious  problems,  and  those  problems 
can  be  solved  only  by  those  who  are  broad  and  far- 
seeing  and  charitable,  as  those  are,  and  generally  those 
only  are,  who  are  liberally  educated.    And  so  we  have 
learned  one   lesson,   which   you   have   learned  here,   I 
doubt  not,  that  all  culture  which  is  worth  anything 
is  culture  for  service.     And  I  give  you,  young  gentle- 


61 

men  and  young  ladies  of  this  institution  who  are  pres- 
ent, and  friends,  a  Hne  from  Mrs.  Browning,  which  I 
think  might  well  be  your  motto:  -: 

"The  man  most  man,  with  tenderest  human  hands, 
Works  best  for  men  as  God  in  Nazareth." 

(Applause.) 

President  McCLELLAND:  We  have  with  us  to- 
night, very  fortunately,  an  editor  from  the  Eastern 
coast,  who  may  possibly  be  able  to  give  our  editor 
from  the  Western  coast  something  in  kind,  if  he  is  so 
disposed.  At  least,  we  shall  be  very  much  delighted  to 
hear  a  word  from  Dr.  Ward,  on  any  line  he  may  choose 
to  present.    (Applause.) 

Dr.  WARD:  Mr.  President,  it  will  have  to  be  but 
a  word,  for  the  time  is  short.  I,  too,  come  from  New 
Jersey,  and  I  Uke  the  word  "provincialism."  I  am  glad 
it  was  spoken  today,  because  it  is  a  word  that  has  a 
close  relation  to  education.  One  time,  during  the  sec- 
ond administration  of  President  Lincoln,  while  that 
magnificent  and  noble  man,  Henry  Wilson,  was  vice- 
president  of  the  United  States,  he  came  into  my  office 
and  sat  down  by  the  side  of  my  desk,  and  began  to  talk 
about  Massachusetts,  "dear  old  Massachusetts."  Said 
he,  "The  foreigners  are  coming  in,  and  there  is  only 
one  thing  that  can  save  us,  and  that  is  education — 
education.  And  the  one  thing  that  I  am  most  inter- 
ested in  is  to  see  that  the  school  system  of  Massachu- 
setts shall  take  these  boys  that  come  to  us  with  these 
Irish  and  French  and  other  immigrants  and  make  Massa- 
chusetts men  of  them."  I  remember  that  Henry  Wilson 
was  raised  in  a  poor-house,  and  lived  in  one  until  he 
was  bound  out  to  the  shoe  trade,  and  did  not  learn  to 
read  or  write  until  he  was  well  grown.    He  was  a  man 


62 

who  always  talked  good  English  in  a  speech,  but  sitting 
there  beside  me  he  would  be  free,  easy  and  thoughtless 
in  his  expressions,  lapsing  into  double  negatives,  bad 
grammar,  while  talking  of  the  importance  of  education. 
I  would  like  to  say  one  word,  not  to  these  older  peo- 
ple nor  to  the  visitors,  but  to  these  young  men  and 
young  women  who  are  here  in  the  process  of  education; 
that  a  school,  and  above  all  a  Christian  school,  is  an 
institution  whose  purpose  it  is  to  fight  provincialism. 
A  person  without  education,  what  is  he?  He  sees  this 
little  circle  "that  girds  us  around,"  and  he  takes  it  to 
be  "the  world's  extreme";  he  knows  nothing  beyond 
this  horizon.  He  sees  a  potato,  and  knows  it  is  some- 
thing to  hoe  and  to  eat.  Wheat  is  to  him  only  some- 
thing to  make  flour  of  and  to  eat.  That  which  is  be- 
yond the  mountain  and  the  shores  he  knows  nothing  of. 
But  the  purpose  of  education  is  to  give  the  man  eyes 
to  see  that  which  is  right  before  him;  to  look  also 
beyond  the  Pacific  and  the  Atlantic,  to  see  the  world 
and  to  discover  friends  throughout  the  world.  And 
Christian  education,  what  is  that  for?  Christian  educa- 
tion has  for  its  purpose  to  make  him  see  something 
more  than  this  little  provincial  moment  in  which  he 
lives;  to  fit  him  to  look  backward  to  the  ages  behind, 
and  forward  to  the  ages  beyond,  into  the  very  eternity 
of  God  past  and  God  future,  and  to  see  the  service  which 
God  bids  him  to  do  for  the  world.  It  is  the  opposite  and 
the  corrective  of  provincialism.     (Applause.) 

President  McCLELLAND:  We  shall  all  be  glad  to 
hear  from  one  of  our  other  Pacific  Coast  colleges.  I  am 
happy  to  present  President  Penrose,  who  brings  us  the 
greetings  of  Whitman  College. 

President  PENROSE:     Mr.  President  and  Friends 


63 

of  Pacific  University:  I  am  not  a  good  person  to  make 
a  long  speech  to  fill  up  a  gap.  I  wish  to  say  only  one 
thing:  I  bring  the  greetings,  this  evening,  of  another 
college,  which  has  not  yet  attained  to  what  Pacific 
University  has  already  attained;  and  yet,  a  sister  insti- 
tution which  today  feels  deeply  with  joy  and  thankful- 
ness for  the  prosperity  which  has  come  to  this  institu- 
tion. And  it  is  without  any  touch  of  envy  that  I  bring 
to  you,  sir  (turning  to  President  McClelland),  the  con- 
gratulations, the  love  and  sympathy  of  Whitman  Col- 
lege. (Applause.)  We  hope  and  we  pray  that  the 
education  which  is  given  at  Pacific  University  may  be 
always  broad  and  deep  and  high,  and  that  it  may  be 
filled  to  overflowing  with  the  spirit  of  Jesus  Christ. 
(Applause.) 

President  McCLELLAND:  We  have  with  us  this 
evening  a  man  who  has  been  longer  in  service  as  a  col- 
lege president  of  a  Congregational  college  than  any 
other  man,  I  think,  now  living — twenty-eight  years.  Dr. 
Strong,  of  Carleton  College,  has  this  other  distinction, 
that  he  is  the  only  college  president  that  Carleton  ever 
had,  and  he  has  been  president  of  Carleton  during  all 
those  years.    (Applause.) 

Dr.  STRONG:  Mr.  President:  It  would  not  be 
altogether  fit  for  you  now  to  call  a  young  man  to  speak. 
I  always  bow  with  reverence  to  the  learned  man  who 
addressed  you  a  few  moments  ago,  and  who  taught  me 
how  scientifically  to  break  chemical  apparatus  in  the 
laboratory,  when  I  was  under  his  instruction — my  ven- 
erable friend,  the  Rev.  Dr.  Ward.  (Applause.)  So, 
although  I  may  be  the  longest  in  service  of  our  college 
presidents  in  this  country,  certainly  I  may  claim  to  be 
not  so  very  old  when  I  can  thus  look  up  to  one  who, 


64 

as  we  all  know,  is  still  young  and  in  the  full  prime  of 
his  years.     (Applause.) 

I  wish  to  bring  my  most  hearty  congratulations  and 
greetings  to  you,  Mr.  President,  for  this  day,  which  is 
a  day  of  history-making,  as  it  will  surely  appear  in 
coming  generations.  We  are  making  history  today, 
whether  we  may  appreciate  it  or  not.  It  has  been  my 
fortune  to  have  connection  with  a  young  college  from 
its  beginning,  and  I  know  something  about  foundation- 
laying.  I  congratulate  you,  sir,  on  the  blessed  priv- 
ilege of  laying  foundations  for  education  in  this  broad 
land.  There  is  no  labor  higher,  nobler,  more  blessed  in 
its  fruitage.  There  are  indeed  many  sacrifices  to  be 
made;  but  what  are  all  those  compared  with  the  blessed 
fruitage  which  God  gives  to  those  who  give  themselves 
to  such  a  service?  Most  sincerely  do  I  congratulate  you 
on  being  called  to  a  work  which  will  require  sacrifices. 
God  blesses  those  who  do  sacrifice  for  His  sake  and  for 
the  Kingdom's  sake. 

This  has  been  a  day  of  great  delight  to  me,  for  it  has 
carried  me  back  to  the  early  memories — although  so 
young  a  man!  (Laughter.)  It  has  been  my  privilege 
to  know  personally  most  of  the  college  presidents  now 
Hving  in  our  connection,  and  some  who  have  gone  to 
their  reward;  among  them  the  first  president  of  this 
Pacific  University.  His  brother,  a  professor  here, 
whose  name  I  gladly  hear  you  mention  today,  Joseph 
W.  Marsh,  was  a  boy  with  me  in  the  Green  Mountain 
state,  in  the  same  Sabbath  School  class,  and,  though 
we  have  not  met  for  forty  years,  until  the  other  day,  I 
love  him  as  a  man  consecrated  to  his  work,  who  in 
educational  lines  has  made  himself  felt  most  effectively 
on  this  Pacific  Coast.    (Applause.) 


65 

If  I  add  anything  more  than  this  word  of  greeting 
and  congratulation,  let  it  be  an  earnest  word  with 
regard  to  Christian  education,  and  what  is  involved  in 
it.  I  hold  that  there  is  no  education  worth  the  having 
except  Christian  education.  And  what  is  the  end  and 
aim  of  a  Christian  education?  Its  ideal  is  the  securing 
of  a  symmetrical  manhood  and  womanhood;  not  edu- 
cating the  intellect  at  the  expense  of  the  heart,  but  the 
rounded,  symmetrically  developed  manhood  and 
womanhood.  Its  ideal  is  the  highest  possible  develop- 
ment of  the  whole  man.  What  is  its  aim?  Character, 
character,  the  only  possession  which  is  priceless  and 
eternal.  Any  education  that  does  not  aim  to  uplift  the 
whole  man,  secure  his  full  development,  is  not  worthy 
of  the  name.  How  shall  we  secure  this  true  ideal? 
Ralph  Waldo  Emerson  once  said  to  me  at  the  tea-table, 
as  we  were  conversing,  "I  never  care  to  ask  what  my 
daughter  shall  study,  but  only  to  whom  I  shall  send  her 
to  be  taught." 

A  fundamental  law  of  education  underlies  that  utter- 
ance. The  power  of  the  world's  great  teachers,  from 
Socrates  and  Plato  to  Arnold  and  Hopkins,  has  been 
the  power  of  personality.  They  illustrate  the  truth 
too  often  forgotten,  that  education  is  not  the  imparta- 
tion  of  knowledge,  but  the  quickening  of  the  spirit. 
It  is  the  inspiration  which  thrills  the  whole  being,  when 
a  human  soul  capable  of  vibrating  in  harmony  with 
what  is  divine,  is  brought  into  touch  with  a  personality 
all  aflame  with  its  devotion.  It  is  the  living  incarna- 
tion of  the  noblest  aims  and  loftiest  ideals.  The  edu- 
cative power  of  a  great  soul  outweighs  all  endowment 
and  all  apparatus.     Books   may  contain   and   impart 


66 


knowledge,  but  personality  alone  can  inspire,  develop, 
educate.    There  is  no  other  power  like  it. 

Yet  I  am  not  satisfied  simply  with  that  statement 
which  Ralph  Waldo  Emerson  made.  Something-  more 
than  personality  is  needed.  It  must  be  consecrated  per- 
sonality. Ah!  this  is  the  power  which  the  world  most 
needs  for  its  moral  uplifting.  It  is  the  most  effective 
power  God  ever  uses  when  he  employs  human  agencies. 
You  have  examples  here  in  the  founders  of  this  insti- 
tution, whom  I  honor  in  my  thought  and  would  honor, 
were  it  possible,  by  personal  recognition.  They  are 
those  laymen  with  us  today  who  were  pioneers.  In 
them  we  have  illustrations  of  a  consecrated  personality, 
the  evidence  of  which  must  be  unselfishness  and  devo- 
tion to  that  which  is  highest  and  best.  Do  you  not 
know  that  it  is  this  spirit  of  altruism  which  is  always 
found  in  true  heroism?  There  can  be  no  true  heroism 
without  it,  for  there  is  no  such  thing  as  a  selfish  heroism. 
We  honor  those  who  forget  self  and  meet  duty  with  no 
thought  of  personal  rewards,  for  that  is  heroic.  We 
love  to  think  of  Hobson  and  his  comrades;  we  love  to 
think  of  others  like  them  who  have  recently  been  bring- 
ing glory  to  our  nation.  They  are  not  aiming  at  self- 
glory;  they  willingly  take  all  the  dangers,  risks  and 
responsibilities  involved  in  their  heroic  deeds.  This  is  an 
ignoring  of  self,  a  forgetting  of  self,  which  is  the  true 
gospel  principle.  This  is  the  altruistic  philosophy  which 
must  underlie  and  pervade  all  right  development  of 
character.  A  beautiful  legend  tells  of  a  saintly  man  so 
loved  of  the  angels  that  they  sought  for  him  some  new 
gift  of  divine  favor,  so  they  were  sent  to  ask  what  he 
would  like.  "Oh,  nothing,"  he  replied; — he  was  quite 
content.     They  pressed  him:  "Would  you  not  like  to 


67 

perform  miracles?"  "Oh,  no;  that  is  Christ's  work." 
"But  would  you  not  like  power  to  convert  souls?"  "No, 
that  is  the  office  of  the  Holy  Spirit."  Still  they  urged 
him:  "Will  you  not  have  something?"  Finally  he  said, 
"If  I  must  choose,  I  would  like  the  power  of  doing  a 
great  deal  of  good  among  men  without  ever  knowing 
it."  And  so  it  was  that  ever  after  this,  his  shadow,  when 
it  fell  before  him  and  he  could  see  its  effect,  was  like 
the  shadow  of  any  other  man;  but  when  it  fell  behind 
him  out  of  his  sight  it  blessed  all  whom  it  touched.  Ah! 
friends,  this  is  the  spirit  of  true  consecration;  nothing 
for  self,  even  in  the  inner  chambers  of  the  soul,  this  it 
is  which  marks  the  truest  and  noblest  and  most  heroic 
character.  Oh,  that  we,  in  the  spirit  of  the  Master  who 
gave  himself,  might  all  give  ourselves  to  this  blessed 
work  of  lifting  up — lifting  up  to  a  higher  realm,  and 
so  make  the  world  the  better  for  our  living  in  it. 

There  is  a  profound  philosophy  in  Tennyson's  words: 

"That  men   may  rise  on   stepping  stones 
Of  their  dead  selves  to  higher  things." 

Ah,  friends,  let  us  never  forget  that  it  is  only  on  our 
dead  selves  that  we  ever  can  rise  to  the  highest  things. 
As  physical  perfection  becomes  beauty  only  where  it 
is  unconscious,  as  a  beautiful  face  always  loses  its 
charm  when  it  betrays  vanity,  so  self-consciousness  al- 
ways degrades  the  heroic  and  mars  the  spiritual. 

Were  there  time,  I  should  like  to  illustrate  by  more 
than  a  brief  reference  to  Carleton  College,  how  God 
blesses  the  efforts  of  consecrated  teachers.  It  is  a 
remarkable  fact,  which  can  scarcely  be  paralleled  in  the 
record  of  young  institutions  in  our  country,  that  from 
the  beginning  of  Carleton,  not  a  year,  scarcely  a  single 
term,  has  passed  without  special  proofs  of  the  divine 


68 

presence  and  blessing.  A  daily  prayer-meeting  has 
been  voluntarily  sustained  by  the  students  for  more 
than  twenty-five  years.  About  ninety-five  per  cent,  of 
all  her  graduates  have  gone  out  Christian  men  and 
women,  and  have  become  centers  of  right,  moral  influ- 
ence. One  honored  professor,  who  has  done  more  to 
make  our  institution  known  in  Europe  than  all  the  rest 
of  us  put  together,  has  never  yet,  during  his  twenty- 
seven  years  of  service,  conducted  a  recitation  without 
first  invoking  upon  it  the  divine  blessing. 

It  is  a  striking  fact,  illustrating  how  God  blesses  such 
consecrated  personality  in  educational  work,  that  more 
than  lo  per  cent,  of  all  our  graduates  who  have  been 
out  five  years  are  today  presidents,  professors  or  in- 
structors in  colleges.  Surely  we  have  reason  to  thank 
God  and  take  courage.  God  bless  you,  my  dear  sir 
(turning  to  President  McClelland),  God  bless  all  these 
college  presidents  throughout  our  land,  and  make  them 
more  and  more  powers  for  hastening  the  coming  of  the 
Kingdom,  and  for  bringing  honor  to  that  name  which 
is  above  every  name.    (Applause.) 

Mr.  George  S.  Houghton  asked  permission  at  this 
time  ''to  give  a  brief  notice."  On  being  recognized  by 
President  McClelland, 

Mr.  HOUGHTON  said:  Mr.  President,  I  wish  to 
say  simply  this:  That  I  undertook  the  work  and  man- 
agement of  this  Council  train,  not  for  the  gain  there 
might  be  in  it,  but  rather  with  the  prospect  of  a  loss. 
I  have  enjoyed  every  moment  of  m.y  association  with 
that  noble  company  that  came  across  with  me.  I  have 
been  deeply  gratified  by  the  warm  expressions  of  satis- 
faction with  the  management  of  the  train.  I  thought 
for  a  few  days  that  I  was  $500  ''in  the  hole,"  as  the  say- 


€9 

ing  goes,  but,  thanks  to  the  Chicago  friends,  who 
helped  me  out,  there  is  now  a  Httle  margin  of  profit, 
and  I  want  to  invest  it  here.  (Applause.)  I  shall  be 
very  happy,  indeed,  to  present  to  President  McClelland 
a  check  for  $200.    (Great  applause.) 

President  McCLELLAND:  In  behalf  of  the  college 
I  want  to  thank  Mr.  Houghton.  It  is  too  much,  I  fear. 
And  I  want  to  add,  that  if  there  are  any  more  gentle- 
men who  wish  to  give  notices,  they  will  be  recognized. 
(Laughter  and  applause.)  I  am  very  glad  to  say  we 
have  a  man  here  specially  commissioned  by  Dr.  Pear- 
sons to  bring  his  greetings  to  this  college,  a  man  whom 
we  all  delight  to  honor  on  the  P'acific  Coast,  Dr.  Savage, 
of  the  Chicago  Seminary.     (Applause.) 

Dr.  SAVAGE:  Mr.  President,  there  is  not  time  to 
say  all  that  is  in  one's  heart  and  mind  on  an  occasion 
Hke  this.  And  yet,  I  cannot  forbear  to  give  congratu- 
lations to  the  president  of  this  institution  and  to  all 
connected  with  it  for  the  grand  work  which  they  have 
been  able  to  accomplish  during  the  last  half-century. 
For  nearly  fifty  years  I  have  been  accustomed  to  hear 
of  the  planting,  of  the  struggles,  of  the  growth,  of  the 
prosperity,  of  the  usefulness,  of  Pacific  University.  And 
yet,  today  I  have  seen  with  my  own  eyes,  and  my  heart 
rejoices  as  I  witness,  the  results  that  have  been  ac- 
complished during  these  years.  It  was  my  privilege 
to  be  associated  with  the  planter  of  this  college 
at  Andover,  and  from  that  time  on  I  hon- 
ored him  as  I  honored  comparatively  few  men  for  the 
self-sacrificing  work  which  he  did  in  the  planting  of 
churches  on  this  Pacific  Coast,  when  it  cost  so  much  to 
accomplish  the  work  which  he  performed;  and  the 
planting  here  of  a  Christian  college  which  was  to  be  a 


70 

permanent  memorial  of  his  interest  in  college  education 
and  in  the  progress  of  Christ's  kingdom  through  such 
an  instrumentality.  I  heard  him  at  the  Council  in  1865, 
again  in  the  Council  in  1871,  again  in  the  Council  of 
1880,  repeat  over  and  over  the  story  of  the  trials,  of 
the  sacrifices,  of  the  blessings,  which  resulted  from  the 
Christian  churches  and  Christian  institutions  on  this 
Pacific  Coast.  And  I  want  to  pay,  in  one  word,  my 
tribute  of  regard  for  George  H.  Atkinson.  (Great  ap- 
plause.) He  was  truly  a  man  of  God;  he  was  a  man 
that  laid  himself  on  the  altar  of  consecration  to  God's 
service,  to  do  his  will  wherever,  in  his  providence,  he 
called  him  to  labor  for  the  upbuilding  of  his  Kingdom. 
And  I  could  but  think  today,  as  I  have  sat  upon  this 
platform  and  looked  down  over  this  assembly  gathered 
here  from  all  parts  of  the  United  States,  that  if  there 
is  any  added  joy  in  Heaven  itself  by  witnessing  scenes 
transpiring  upon  the  earth,  the  heart  of  our  good 
brother  Atkinson  must  have  had  an  added  joy  today 
as  he  looked  down  over  the  heavenly  heights  to  witness 
the  results  of  his  labor  as  we  have  been  privileged  to 
have  them  rehearsed  in  our  hearing,  and  have  had  the 
sight  of  it  before  us  today.  (Applause.)  But  my  mes- 
sage is  simply  this,  from  one  who  has  been  a  benefactor 
of  the  institution  in  recent  years.  When  I  was  coming 
to  Portland,  "the  college  builder,"  as  he  glories  in  call- 
ing himself.  Dr.  Pearsons,  said  to  me:  "Don't  you  come 
back  to  Chicago  until  you  have  gone  up  to  Pacific 
University,  and  have  there  given  my  congratulations  to 
the  president  of  the  university  and  to  those  associated 
with  him,  for  the  grand  work  they  have  done  in  com- 
plying with  the  conditions  which  I  made  of  the  offer 
of  funds  to  the  institution.  (Applause.)  Because  I 
have  confidence  in   the  president   of  that   university. 


71 

(Great  applause.)  I  have  confidence  in  the  university 
itself;  I  believe  it  to  be  a  power  for  great  good  on  the 
Pacific  Coast,  and  I  rejoice  that  I  have  had  the  priv- 
ilege of  helping  in  sustaining  such  an  institution  that 
is  to  live  after  I  have  gone  away."  I  bring  you  his  con- 
gratulations, for  his  heart  has  been  exceedingly  happy 
these  last  few  weeks;  for  five  of  the  institutions  to 
which  he  made  the  offer  of  $50,000  each,  upon  con- 
dition of  raising  another  $100,000  to  add  to  it,  have 
within  these  last  few  weeks  accomplished  the  end,  and 
have  secured  his  check  for  the  $50,000  that  was  pledged 
to  them.  (Applause.)  I  shall  not  soon  forget  what  I 
witnessed  the  last  week  in  June,  when  at  Beloit  College, 
with  his  good  wife  by  his  side,  when  the  announcement 
came  by  a  telegram  from  Mt.  Holyoke  Seminary,  "We 
have  raised  the  $150,000,  and  added  a  thousand  and 
some  hundreds  more  to  it,"  Dr.  Pearsons  said,  "No 
more  joyful  news  could  come  by  telegraph,"  and  his 
check  went  immediately  to  meet  his  pledge.  Beloit 
College  that  day  completed  its  $150,000  by  large  self- 
sacrifices  on  the  part  of  the  trustees  in  making 
up  the  last  $20,000;  and  another  thousand,  he 
said,  came  from  his  wife,  because  the  college 
had  done  so  well.  And  so  he  spoke  of  the  other 
three,  that  during  these  anniversary  weeks  had  accom- 
plished it,  saying,  "Nothing  gives  my  heart  greater  joy 
than  to  have  the  conditions  that  I  made  in  these  gifts 
fulfilled  by  the  colleges."  And  while  he  did  not  author- 
ize me  to  say  it,  yet  there  was  an  intimation  that  all 
these  colleges,  having  done  so  well,  would  be  remem- 
bered in  the  future.    (Applause.) 

President  McCLELLAND:    Many  of  you  doubtless 
were  at  the  Council  which  met  in  Syracuse  three  years 


72 


ago.  You  will  remember  that  persuasive  speech  which 
was  made  by  Dr.  Hallock,  then  of  Tacoma,  when  at  the 
close  of  every  argument  in  favor  of  coming  to  Portland, 
the  refrain  came  in  so  beautifully  and  so  persuasively, 
"We  want  you  to  come!"  To  Dr.  Hallock,  perhaps, 
more  than  to  any  other  man,  belongs  the  credit  of  hav- 
ing brought  you  across  the  continent  to  meet  at  this 
time  on  the  Pacific  Coast.  We  want  to  hear  a  word 
from  Dr.  Hallock.    (Applause.) 

Dr.  HALLOCK:  Mr.  President,  Ladies  and  Gentle- 
men: This  is  a  very  happy  moment,  and  I  feel  today 
that  the  East  is  under  obhgations  to  Oregon.  Travel 
is  educational,  and,  while  I  suppose  our  friend  Hough- 
ton does  not  claim  to  be  a  college  president,  yet  he  cer- 
tainly has  done  much  to  educate  the  East.  (Applause.) 
To  transport  so  many  and  so  good  men  so  near  the 
setting  sun  is  a  benefit  that  will  be  lasting,  and  the  East 
will  know  the  West  better,  and  the  West  will  love  the 
East  more,  by  reason  of  this  meeting  on  the  shores  of 
the  Willamette.  (Applause.)  I  had  the  fortune,  good 
or  bad  as  the  case  might  be,  to  be  bom  in  the  Bay 
state,  and  to  spend  the  most  of  my  early  life  in  New 
England.  I  had  to  feel  that  the  great  men  and  the 
stronger  men  were  in  the  East ;  that  the  Western  men 
and  the  Western  colleges  had  not  and  could  not  be 
expected  to  have  so  high  a  type  of  culture  and  of  man- 
hood as  the  East.  Never,  perhaps,  did  I  go  as  far  as 
the  story  is  concerning  the  two  great  statesmen  of  a 
generation  ago.  You  may  remember  how  the  banter 
used  to  be  between  the  South  and  the  North,  and  when 
John  C.  Calhoun  and  Webster  were  walking  down  the 
street  one  day  in  Washington  they  met  a  band  of  mules; 
and  Calhoun  says  to  Webster,  'There  are  some  of  your 


73 

Massachusetts  mud-sills."  "Yes,"  said  Webster,  "they 
are  going  down  to  South  Carolina  ,to  teach  school." 
(Laughter.)  Now,  after  a  half  dozen  years  on  this 
coast,  if  there  is  anything  that  I  have  learned  thor- 
oughly and  dare  to  stand  by  in  this  presence  tonight,  it 
is  that  there  are  no  truer  men,  none  more  heroic,  self- 
sacrificing.  Christian,  efficient  and  manly,  than  the  men 
that  have  stood  on  the  frontier  and  laid  the  foundations 
of  Christian  churches  and  Christian  colleges.  (Ap- 
plause.) I  have  been  associated  somewhat  intimately 
during  some  of  these  years  with  the  directing  of  a  col- 
lege memorial  of  as  grand  a  statesman  as  ever  trod  the 
soil  of  America — Dr.  Whitman.  (Great  applause.)  As 
pure  a  man,  as  self-sacrificing  a  missionary  as  ever  car- 
ried the  gospel  westward.  I  have  been  associated  with 
that  college,  and  honored  to  be  for  a  time  upon  its 
board.  I  have  also,  the  last  two  years,  had  the  privilege 
of  being  in  California  and  enjoyed  the  fellowship  and 
co-operation  of  my  dear  friend  at  the  head  of  Pacific 
Theological  Seminary,  and  the  privilege  also  of  minis- 
tering at  one  of  the  colleges  that  is  not  distinctively 
Congregational  by  name,  though  Congregational  in 
spirit,  the  college  for  young  ladies  founded  by  Dr. 
Mills,  of  Williams  College,  missionary  of  the  American 
Board  thirty-one  years  ago — Mills  College,  that  has 
been  doing  its  splendid  Christian  work  on  the  same 
basis  as  Mt.  Holyoke  by  one  of  Mt.  Holyoke*s 
daughters  for  this  whole  generation.  (Applause.)  I 
am  rejoiced  deeply  in  my  soul  at  the  splendid  progress 
which  is  being  made  for  Christian  education  upon  this 
coast.  There  were  seers  fifty  years  ago.  I  do  not 
know  that  any  of  us  are  prophets  today,  but  some 
things  we  cannot  fail  to  see  coming  over  the  goodly 
horizon.     There  were  seers  in  those  days,  for  it  was 


74 

only  five  years  or  less  before  this  institution  on  which 
we  stand  today  was  founded,  that  Senator  Benton,  of 
New  Jersey,-said  on  the  floor  of  the  senate:  ''1  thank 
God  for  placing  the  Rocky  mountains  there  as  a  natural 
and  eternal  barrier  for  these  United  States."  And  it 
was  also  said,  by  Senator  McDuffie,  I  think,  "God  for- 
bid that  we  should  ever  have  a  state  on  the  shores  of 
the  Pacific,  fronting  toward  Asia,  that  should  bring  its 
jarring  and  discordant  elements  into  our  already  over- 
burdened confederacy.'*  (Laughter.)  Think  of  it!  on 
the  floor  of  the  senate  sixty  years  from  the  day  which 
we  celebrate!  Well,  the  world  moves.  And  it  is  not 
through  moving  yet.  It  is  moving  westward;  it  is 
broadening.  That  yonder  mountain  standing  Hke  a 
sweet  sugar-loaf  in  its  beauty,  pierces  the  sky  with  its 
ermine;  but  it  could  not  stand  up  there  in  the  bright 
blue  and  white  if  it  had  not  a  breadth  of  base  commen- 
surate with  its  altitude.  And  so  our  institutions  must 
have  a  breadth  of  base;  they  must  be  broad  in  their 
culture,  and  especially  must  they  stand  on  the  ever- 
lasting foundation  of  Christian  truth,  if  they  are  going 
to  build  Christian  manhood  up  into  the  divine.  (Ap- 
plause.) That  is  what  our  Christian  colleges  are  doing. 
In  California,  where  the  two  great  twin  institutions  of 
a  secular  sort  stand  almost  facing  one  another,  there 
is  still  felt  by  the  Christian  people  of  the  state  to  be  the 
same  need  as  ever  for  the  Christian  college.  And  the 
president  of  Stanford,  himself  not  committed  in  any 
sense  to  what  we  regard  as  distinctively  Christian,  said 
to  me  within  a  few  days,  "There  is  and  always  will  be  a 
need  in  California,  as  in  other  states,  for  the  college  dis- 
tinctively Christian;  the  world  believes  it."  And  we 
shall  not  have  solved  the  problem  of  education  when 
we  shall  have  planted  in  every  state  of  the  Union  a 


75 

State  university,  for  it  lacks  the  very  essential  element 
of  the  training  of  the  spiritual  man. 

Now,  I  have  this  to  say  in  the  forecast:  These  col- 
leges are  not  simply  for  the  education  of  people  who 
may  come  to  them,  but  they  are  rapidly  making  their 
own  constituency.  Six  years  ago  when  the  doors  of 
Leland  Stanford  University  were  opened,  one  of  the 
distinguished  professors  of  the  University  of  CaHfornia 
made  an  address  in  which  he  said,  in  substance — I  am 
not  giving  the  figures  exactly:  ''There  are  in  the  state 
of  California  some  800  people  that  are  seeking  and 
prosecuting  a  college  education.  Leland  Stanford 
University  may  divide  these  800  people  with  the  Uni- 
versity of  California,  but  hardly  more  than  that  can  be 
expected  at  present."  Six  years  have  passed.  Leland 
Stanford  University  numbers  1,100  in  its  roll  of  pupils, 
the  University  of  California  2,000.  That  3,000,  that 
quadruple  of  the  number  of  students  of  six  years  ago, 
is  the  outcome  of  the  perpetual  educational  processes 
which  are  going  on  by  the  very  existence  of  the  uni- 
versity. (Great  applause.)  And  so,  forecasting  the 
future  of  this  institution,  and  others  in  this  neighbor- 
hood, it  is  easy  to  see  and  to  say  that  the  institution 
which  today  meets  the  requirements  of  this  community 
will  require  an  expansion  as  rapid  and  as  extended  as 
the  expansion  of  the  territory  of  the  United  States  has 
been,  in  order  to  keep  pace  with  the  increasing  march 
of  young  men  and  young  women  that  will  be  inspired 
to  seek  a  liberal  education. 

What  is  to  be  the  future  of  our  colleges  in  the  West 
it  is  not  easy  to  say.  But  in  all  the  past  the  United 
States  in  its  mangnificent  development  has  been  follow- 
ing the  lines  of  an  unspoken  Providence.     We  came 


76 


West  from  the  day  it  was  entered  on  the  records  of  the 
Massachusetts  general  court  that  a  certain  appropria- 
tion should  be  made  to  build  a  highway  14  miles  west 
of  Boston  Common,  "being  as  far  as  a  road  is  ever 
likely  to  be  wanted  in  that  direction."  (Laughter.) 
We  have  gone  on  from  that  day  to  enter  into  the  Con- 
necticut Valley,  to  the  Ohio  Valley,  to  the  Mississippi 
Valley,  to  the  prairies  of  the  West,  to  the  plains  of  the 
farther  West.  We  have  thrown  down  the  statue  of 
the  fabled  god  Terminus  from  the  crest  of  the  Rocky 
mountains,  and  scrambled  over  its  base  with  tens  of 
thousands  of  emigrants.  We  have  come  up  the  slopes 
of  the  Rockies  and  down  the  slopes  of  the  Rockies  on 
the  hither  side,  until  we  have  piled  up  on  the  Western 
coast,  and  we  have  made  here — I  challenge  you  to  take 
note — we  have  developed  here  on  this  Western  coast 
a  civilization  and  Christian  crystallization  of  character 
and  home  that  is  even  more  distinctively  New  England 
in  its  type  than  you  will  find  anywhere  between  the  two 
seas.  (Great  applause.)  If  you  lived  here  a  half  dozen 
years,  as  I  have,  you  of  the  East  would  begin  to  dis- 
cern the  fact  that  the  strength  of  New  England  charac- 
ter has  wrought  itself  like  a  thread  of  gold  into  the 
tapestry  of  this  cosmopolitan  society,  and  produced  a 
breadth  and  brilliance  of  character  such  as  may  well 
parallel  that  on  the  Atlantic  Coast.  We  have  come 
across  the  continent,  through  the  river  valleys  and  over 
the  mountains  and  down  these  rivers,  and  here  we 
stand  at  what  was  supposed  for  a  generation  would  be 
the  last  stopping-place  of  the  American  people.  But 
we  cannot  stop  here.  We  are  now  very  near  the  mid- 
dle of  things,  just  on  the  spot  where  we  stand.  If  you 
draw  a  line  from  the  toe  of  Florida  on  the  great  circle 
to  the  end  of  the  Alaskan  peninsula,  and  then  draw  a 


77 

line  from  Eastport,  Maine,  on  the  same  principle,  down 
to  our  newly-acquired  and  ever-wefcome  cosmopolitan 
Honolulu  (great  applause),  you  will  find  that  those  two 
lines  bisect  each  other  very  near  the  spot  on  which  we 
stand.     This  is  about  the  middle  of  the  United  States. 
(Laughter  and  applause.)     And  we  are  going  to  fill  it 
with  so  many  and  such  a  good  quality  of  people  under 
your  administration.  Sir,  that  the  United  States  from 
end  to  end  will  be  glad  to  come  in  here  one  of  these 
days,  to  the  center,  and  see  how  it  looks  at  the  Hub! 
(Laughter  and  applause.)      I    say    these    things,  Mr. 
President,  that  my  good  friend  who  was  on  the  plat- 
form a  little  while  ago  (Dr.  Barton)  may  understand 
that  there  is  one  modest  Westerner.     (Great  laughter.) 
And  now  I  must  take  my  seat,  having  only  indicated 
what  I  believe  sincerely  to  be  true,  that  God  has  not 
made  the  triple  gates  that  open  on  this  Western  sea  for 
nothing;  the  Golden  Gate  that  faces  to  the  many  isles 
of  the  sea  and  Yokohama;  this  king  of  the  rivers — dis- 
covered, by  the  way,  by  Captain  Gray,  that  floated  the 
Stars  and  Stripes  on  her  trip  from  Boston;  yes,  it  was 
a  Boston    man  that    discovered    the    Columbia  river 
(applause) — this  king  of  rivers  opening  out  to  Yoka- 
hama,  Hong  Kong  and  Corea;  and  the  Straits  of  Fuca, 
our  northern  gateway,  opening  out  to  Corea,  to  Vlad- 
ivostock,  and  the  mouth  of  the  great  Yukon.     God  has 
not  made  this  triple  gateway  in  vain.     We  have    not 
thought  it,  but  it  begins  now  to  seem  as  if  he  has  de- 
sip-ned  that,  having  accomplished  for  ourselves  a  base 
of  operations,  if  you  please,  a  base  of  supplies,  with  its 
one  foot  on  the  Atlantic  and  one  on  the  Pacific,  facing 
Europe,  of  course,  now  facing  Asia,  we  shall  now  move 
out  of  these  triple  gates  to  teach  the  populous  millions 
of  Asia  how  to  govern  themselves  on  the  principles  of 


Or  r 


78 

Plymouth  Rock.  (Great  applause.)  I  believe  that 
whatever  may  be  the  future  concerning  the  annexation 
of  territory — and  all  our  traditions  are  aggressive  and 
progressive — whether  we  hold  territory  or  not,  we  shall, 
in  the  name  of  Jesus  Christ,  plant  American  Christian- 
ity, which  means  civil  and  religious  liberty,  far  away 
on  the  coasts  of  Asia  and  the  isles  of  the  sea.  (Great 
applause.) 

President  McCLELLAND:  Three  or  four  weeks 
ago  I  was  introduced  to  the  Boston  Ministers'  meeting 
by  a  prominent  minister  of  Boston  as  the  president  who 
represented  a  college  which  was  the  ne  plus  ultra  of 
Christian  education  on  this  continent.  We  are  mak- 
ing history,  as  we  hear,  very  fast  in  these  last  few  weeks. 
We  are  now,  it  seems,  the  central  college  of  the  world. 
We  shall  have  to  change  our  nomenclature  from  this 
time  on.     (Applause.) 

President  Gates,  of  Iowa  College,  thought  he  had 
escaped  me,  but  he  is  just  here  at  the  left,  and  we  want 
to  hear  a  word  from  Iowa  College.     (Applause.) 

President  GATES:  Mr.  President,  I  have  great  re- 
spect for  an  American  audience  that  can  stand  talking 
to  after  this  time  of  night;  but  we  can't  get  away,  so  I 
may  as  well  take  my  place  and  go  on  for  a  little  bit. 

I  have  no  formal  address,  but  a  word  of  greeting  I  am 
pleased  to  bring  to  this  institution  concerning  which  I 
read  a  misprint,  as  I  supposed,  a  few  days  ago.  In  a 
paper  I  picked  up  I  read  that  Pacific  University  was 
to  celebrate  its  fiftieth  anniversary.  I  said,  "It  means 
its  twenty-fifth,  of  course."  I  am  utterly  out  of  pa- 
tience with  you!  We  have  been  boasting  that  we  were 
the  oldest  institution  west  of  the  Mississippi  river.     (I 


79 

believe  this  is  West,  too,  but  if  you  go  much  further  it 
will  be  East.)  But  I  must  share  with  you  that  honor. 
1  think  it  peculiarly  appropriate  that  I  should  bring 
from  Iowa  College,  which  this  year  celebrates  its  fiftieth 
anniversary,  the  greeting  of  that  college  to  one  which, 
very  much  to  our  surprise,  is  observing  the  same  anni- 
versary. We  have  been  celebrating  the  fact  that  Iowa 
College  began  in  the  year  1847,  but  really  began  work 
in  1848,  ''with  two  students  on  a  rainy  day,"  and  one 
Home  Missionary  pastor  for  faculty.  An  early  cata- 
logue published  the  fact  that  there  were  three  profes- 
sors and  three  vacancies — not  identical.  So  we  have 
grown  to  be  what  we  are.  But  this  is  your  day,  not 
ours. 

It  has  been  eloquently  said  here  today  that  our  civ- 
ilization is  moving  gradually  Westward,  dupHcating  its 
experience.  As  I  sat  here  today  I  said  to  myself,  "We 
went  through  all  this  last  week  in  Iowa."  I  seem  to 
be  quite  at  home,  for  you  are  doing  just  what  we  were 
doing  there,  as  these  pioneers  have  been  set  before  us 
in  history  and  in  person. 

But  I  don't  like  Dr.  Pearsons;  he  is  a  rascal  of  the 
first  order!  After  this  fashion:  I  have  cultivated  Dr. 
Pearsons  to  the  best  of  my  ability;  I  have  purred  around 
him;  called  on  him  without  saying  a  word;  congratu- 
lated him  on  all  the  good  work  he  was  doing;  tried  to 
wriggle  into  his  good  graces;  dwelt  on  the  fact  that  I 
was  born  within  twelve  miles  of  where  he  was  up  in 
Vermont;  that  we  fished  in  the  same  little  brook.  He 
admitted  it  all,  but — the  conclusion  didn't  follow. 
(Great  laughter  and  applause.)  Now,  I  don't  think  it 
is  fair.  He  says  in  his  final  answer  to  me,  "Iowa  Col- 
lege is  too  rich."     That  discovery  has  not  been  made 


80 

by  our  faculty  or  trustees.  I  was  down  East  a  little 
while  ago,  calling  on  a  few  friends,  and  I  ran  across  the 
names  of  eight  college  presidents;  in  the  next  morning's 
papers  I  saw  two  more.  I  started  for  home.  Iowa 
College  has  had  its  day  for  work  in  the  East,  and  I  am 
glad  to  say  this  in  the  presence  of  so  many  Eastern 
people.  When  an  Eastern  man  looks  me  squarely  in 
the  face,  and  says,  "You  can  go  home  and  tell  Iowa  peo- 
ple that  it  is  time  that  Iowa,  with  its  abounding  prop- 
erty and  its  unfailing  crops,  should  get  down  out  of  the 
lap  of  the  East  and  run  alone,"  I  haven't  a  word  to  say, 
but  just  go.  That  is  right;  the  place  where  the  benev- 
olence of  the  East  ought  to  go  now  is  to  the  pioneer 
colleges  of  the  farther  West.     (Applause.) 

I  was  a  little  afraid  this  afternoon,  when  we  were 
talking  about  provincialism,  we  might  get  into  trouble. 
Your  editor,  Mr.  Scott,  swung  the  door  wide  open;  but 
it  has  closed  so  graciously  that  half  the  good  stories  1 
had  to  tell  are  out  of  date.  But  that  word  provincial- 
ism leads  us  to  the  conclusion  or  the  discovery  that 
Boston  is  no  longer  a  locahty;  Boston  is  a  state  of  mind. 
(Laughter  and  applause.)  This  ground  has  been  pretty 
well  covered,  but  allow  me  to  add  a  word,  lest  misun- 
derstanding should  possibly  arise  in  the  ears  of  friends 
in  the  East  concerning  the  appreciation  of  the  West 
for  what  friends  East  have  done  for  the  West.  What- 
ever we  may  say  in  a  light  way,  no  possibility  of  such  an 
impression  must  be  permitted.  Iowa  College  has  today 
about  $300,000  of  productive  funds,  three-fourths  of 
which  came  from  the  East.  We  are  not  going  to  for- 
get that,  are  we?  (Applause.)  I  remember  that 
Henry  Preserved  Carter,  father  of  the  present  presi- 
dent of  WilHams  College,  said  to  a  Dr.  Ephriam  Adams, 


81 


who  sits  here  with  us  today,  pointing  to  a  modest  home: 
"You  see  that  home?  I  could  have  biiilt  a  better  home, 
a  richer  one;  but  if  I  had  done  it  I  could  not  have  given 
$7,000  to  Iowa  College."  I  remember  that  other  man, 
Samuel  Williston,  on  the  interest  of  whose  endowment 
of  $28,000  in  Iowa  College  I  live.  Several  relatives  of 
Mr.  WilHston  are  present  at  this  Council.  You  must 
not  ask  me  to  forget  the  East.  (Applause.)  And  I 
remember  that  in  July  of  1893 — business  men  well  re- 
member that  period — there  came  to  Iowa  College  from 
the  estate  of  a  manufacturer  in  Central  Connecticut, 
New  Britain,  Mr.  Erwin,  a  check  for  $89,000.  We  can 
stand  a  good  deal  of  that  sort  of  provincialism.  What- 
ever prosperity  comes  to  us  in  the  future,  let  us  not 
forget  that  these  foundations,  in  our  years  of  pioneer 
poverty,  were  laid  by  friends  in  the  East  who  recognized 
the  fact  that  they  were  helping  to  save  the  country  to 
its  highest  purpose  when  they  gave  liberally  to  such  in- 
stitutions as  this. 

The  provincialism  that  we  do  not  like  is  that  which 
the  president  of  Harvard  shows  when  he  speaks  of  "the 
uninformed  public  opinion  of  the  West."  You  will 
allow  an  Eastern  man  to  object  to  that,  for  I  was  born 
and  trained  educationally  in  the  East.  Two  or  three 
years  ago  I  gave  a  series  of  four  or  five  addresses  to  a 
company  of  Dakota  farmers.  Those  poor  people  had 
driven  from  one  to  fifty  miles  to  spend  a  few  days  in  a 
grove.  They  gathered  in  a  little  bend  of  the  "Jim" 
river,  on  which  grew  a  few  twigs  about  as  big  as  my 
arm,  and  they  thought  they  were  in  a  "grove";  it  was 
all  there  was  within  a  hundred  miles.  You  can  imagine 
how  a  New  England  boy  pitied  them.  I  can  testify  that 
I  never  stood  before  a  company  of  people  where  I  had 


82 

to  mind  my  P's  and  Q's  in  what  I  said  more  than  I 
did  before  those  Dakota  farmers.  And  if  there  be  any 
— capitalist,  banker,  manufacturer — who  think  wisdom 
is  confined  to  the  East  or  to  their  class,  and  is  not 
scattered  about  on  those  Western  prairies,  that  is  where 
they  are  making  one  of  their  prime  blunders.  Thou- 
sands of  men  on  these  prairies  and  amid  these  moun- 
tains are  reading  and  thinking  broadly  and  effectively. 
It  is  the  business  of  education  to  put  an  end  to  social, 
religious,  political  and  industrial  provinciaHsm.  That 
leads  me  to  say  that  Congregational  institutions  always 
have  stood  for  the  largest  spirit  of  liberty.  Liberty  is 
always  a  dangerous  and  revolutionary  thing;  but  there 
is  one  thing  more  dangerous,  namely,  an  attempt  to  sup- 
press liberty.  Hence,  it  is  a  good  thing  to  keep  away 
all  sorts  of  provincialism  in  our  thinking.  For  instance, 
•I  met  in  our  last  presidential  campaign  a  banker  in  Iowa. 
He  said,  "My  personal  interests  are  in  favor  of  the  gold 
standard,  because  I  belong  to  the  creditor  class;  I  be- 
lieve that  my  personal  interests  would  be  best  served 
by  having  the  gold  standard;  but  my  honest  convic- 
tion as  a  student  of  finance  is  that  the  silver  standard 
stands  more  for  righteousness  in  all  the  world  than  the 
gold  standard.  Therefore,  I  vote  for  silver."  Per 
contra,  I  talked  with  an  Iowa  farmer,  who  said:  'T  be- 
lieve from  all  the  study  I  can  make  of  the  subject  that 
my  personal  interests  would  be  best  subserved  if  we  had 
the  silver  standard,  for  I  belong  to  the  debtor  class;  but 
the  best  study  I  can  give  to  the  subject  convinces  me 
that  it  would  not  be  best  for  the  universal  interest. 
Therefore,  I  shall  vote  for  gold."  To  those  two  men, 
to  each  absolutely  alike,  do  I  pay  the  tribute  of  my 
reverential  respect.  (Great  applause.)  It  won't  do  to 
take  it  for  granted  that  6,000,000  voters  are  all  wrong 


88 


and  7,000,000  all  right.  (Applause.)  I  have  a  right 
to  speak  on  this  subject  because  1  did  not  vote  with 
the  6,000,000.  As  much  as  I  stand  by  my  opinion,  so 
much  do  I  claim  the  right  of  every  man  to  stand  by  his 
opinion,  and  to  be  honored  for  it.  It  is  a  dangerous 
symptom  in  a  democracy  when  New  York,  because  it 
has  the  creditor  class,  stands  solid  for  gold,  and  Colo- 
rado, Utah  or  California,  because  each  thinks  its  own 
private  interests  are  favored  by  silver,  shall  vote  solid 
on  that  side.  We  must  get  to  the  standard  of  the  two 
men  I  have  mentioned,  where  each  will  sacrifice  his  own 
for  what  he  believes  to  be  the  good  of  the  whole,  be- 
fore we  can  have  the  right  kind  of  democracy.  (Ap- 
plause.) 

Speaking  of  educational  standards,  1  am  going  to 
say  another  word  which  I  fear  in  this  audience  will  be 
unpopular.  I  get  indignant  in  Iowa  because  our  high 
schools  are  wont  to  speak  of  spohomore,  etc.,  and  use 
the  terms,  ''commencement"  and  ''baccalaureate."  This 
is  pedagogic  blundering,  even  if  not  crime.  It  tends  to 
teach  young  people  to  disregard  higher  education;  it  is 
a  nomenclature  which  belongs  to  institutions  of  higher, 
not  secondary,  learning.  They  talk  about  baccalau- 
reate sermons,  when  they  have  no  baccalaureate,  i.  e., 
bachelor,  degrees  to  confer.  Now,  Brother  McClel- 
land— I  used  to  know  my  friend  in  student  days  in  An- 
dover,  and  I  am  perfectly  wilHng  to  take  any  threshing 
lie  will  give  me  for  what  I  am  about  to  say,  for  there 
are  some  fellows  from  whom  I  would  rather  take  a 
licking  than  a  caress  from  others — if  I  were  on  the 
board  of  trustees  of  Pacific  University  I  should  move 
for  a  change  of  name.  So  far  as  I  know,  Pacific  Uni- 
versity is  the  only  American  college  of  the  Congrega- 


84 


tional  order  that  bears  the  name  "university."  That  is 
a  technical  term,  which  has  a  right  not  to  be  misused. 
Here  in  the  West  our  soil  is  very  rich,  and  weeds  grow 
rank,  and  names  also  grow  very  rank.  I  have  noticed, 
and  you  have  probably  noticed  it,  too,  that  the  smaller 
the  institution  the  more  wind.  The  more  worthless 
and  inadequate  in  its  equipment,  the  larger  its  name.  I 
don't  like  the  name  university  for  a  college.  (Ap- 
plause.) I  do  not  want  to  be  discourteous  or  critical, 
but  I  just  stand  as  a  Congregationalist  in  accordance 
with  our  traditions.  I  want  to  cherish  and  honor  that 
good,  rich  old  name,  distinctively  American — College. 
I  do  not  know  how  you  will  do  it;  I  do  not  know  that 
you  will  think  it  wise;  but  forgive  me  if  I  have  been 
rude. 

One  other  word,  and  I  am  done.  I  heard  a  man  say 
that  the  treasurer  of  Pacific  University — his  name  is 
Failing,  I  believe,  of  Portland — is  such  a  man  that  no 
power  of  president  or  board  of  trustees  of  this  institu- 
tion can  wrest  one  dollar  of  this  college's  endowment 
fund  to  be  used  for  current  expenses.  (Great  ap- 
plause.) 1  pay  you  my  compliments,  Sir,  in  choosing, 
if  you  helped  to  choose  him,  or  my  congratulations  if 
you  did  not,  in  having  such  a  treasurer.  This  country 
is  strewn  with  wrecks  of  colleges  that  have  gone  down 
because  they  did  not  know  what  endowment  means.  I 
have  not  been  the  president  of  a  Western  college  a 
dozen  years  without  knowing  the  temptation  in  this 
direction.  They  are  tremendous,  but  one  of  the  grav- 
est mistakes  a  college  can  make  is  to  use  up  its  endow- 
ment for  cuiTcnt  expenses.  If,  therefore,  I  have  criti- 
cised by  a  single  word  your  name,  let  me  cover  that  up 
by  congratulation  on  the  splendid  financial  showing 


86 

that  you  are  able  to  make.  Bringing,  therefore,  the 
greetings  of  the  oldest  educational- institution  (I  can- 
not yet  say  "one  of  the  oldest")  west  of  the  Mississippi 
river,  wishing  for  you  the  greatest  success,  and  believ- 
ing that  under  your  administration,  and  those  associated 
with  you,  you  will  attain  it,  I  thank  you  for  giving  me 
this  opportunity  for  presenting  our  congratulations. 
(Applause.) 

The  exercises  were  closed  with  the  benediction  by 
Rev.  G.  S.  F.  Savage,  D.  D.,  of  the  Chicago  Theological 
Seminary. 


86 

When  the  institution  was  organized  on  September 
21,  1848,  the  following  persons  were  appointed  trustees: 

Rev.  Harvey  Clark,  Alvin  T.  Smith,  Esq., 

Hiram  Clark,  Esq.,  Rev.  Geo.  H.  Atkinson, 

Peter  H.  Hatch,  Esq.,  James  Moore,  Esq., 

Rev.  Lewis  Thompson,  O.  Russell,  Esq. 
Wm.  H.  Gray,  Esq., 

The  Board  of  Trustees  as  at  present  constituted  is  as 
follows: 

OFFICERS  OF  THE  BOARD. 

Hon.  A.  Hinman President. 

Napoleon  Davis,  Esq Secretary. 

Rev.  Myron  Eells,  D.  D Assistant  Secretary. 

Hon.  Henry  Failing Treasurer. 

Prof.  W.  N.  Ferrin Financial  Secretary. 

TRUSTEES. 

Pres.  Thomas  McClelland,  D.  D.,  ex-of?icio.  Forest  Grove. 

Hon.  R.  P.  Boise,  LL.  D.,  Salem. 

Rev.  Cephas  F.  Clapp,  Forest  Grove. 

L.  H.  Andrews,  Esq.,  Oregon  City. 

Hon.  H.  VV.  Corbett,  Portland. 

Hon.  A.  Hinman,  Forest  Grove. 

Hon.  Henry  Failing,  Portland. 

F.  M.  Warren,  Esq.,  Portland. 

Milton  W.  Smith,  Esq.,  A.  M.,  Portland. 

Newton  McCoy,  Esq.,  A.  B.,  Portland. 

Napoleon  Davis,  Esq.,  A.  M.,  Portland. 

Rev.  Myron  Eells,  D.  D.,  Union  City,  Wash. 

A.  T.  Gilbert,  Esq.,  Salem. 

Hon.  H.  H.  Northup,  Portland. 


YC  653 


